"I got DOWN-Town..."

I hear that song in my head often now. You see, I am student community health nurse this semester and I am working with a population in the Downtown East Village. So far I have not really had much interaction with my community other then my initial assessment, mostly I have been dealing with other community leaders establishing a history of the area. Throughout this blog I have posted a few of the pictures from my walk around which touched me. Not necessarily because of its reflection on the community (although all of them are, some more then others), but just because they plucked at a resonant chord in my soul.

I am brave. I have been downtown BY MYSELF now many times. I have even navigated myself from Marlborough Mall all the way to University and then home using nothing but the transit and my UPass. For some, this would not be a big deal...for me = huge deal! I have only gotten lost once and had to call my wonderful husband for directions on how to find 7th Ave downtown Calgary (yah, the big street with the C-Train running down the middle of it!). I feel somehow that everytime I go downtown myself, dressed like a young professional that somehow I am inching forward to reaching my dreams, even though if you asked me I am not sure I could definitively explain what those dreams were. Do you know the feeling I am talking about though? That sense that you are pulling yourself forward, using all your strength while crushing your fingernails and bruising your knees but you are so happy because you know that it is worth it. It is worth it. Four words that can change your life you know?

Yes, this semester I am doggedly happy. I feel peace in my heart; below my clavicle and a little to the left a contended little sigh emerges which surprises me to know end (If that sigh was audible to anyone but my psyche...I promise I would see a cardiologist ASAP). Weird you know? After two years of University to only NOW really FEEL I am doing the right thing.

So I go "DOWN-town" I take a step further. I go "DOWN-town" I feel a mite better. I go "DOWN-town" and learn something, something, something I did not kno-oh-ow before.

"down-town"..."down-town"...