A Trip To Where It All Began

Right before I left San Francisco, I got the opportunity to pass by my elementary school one last time! I got to catch a glimpse of the building and internally reminisce about the days when I was a child. This is where my love for the Salesians all began!

I grew up in the Excelsior District of San Francisco, an immigrant-working class neighborhood on the outskirts of the city. The Excelsior District was where Filipino, Mexican, Salvadorian, Nicaraguan, Chinese, and Vietnamese immigrants went when they first arrived to the United States. There was a diversity of people walking on the street and also vast varieties of food so numerous that you can see the restaurants lined up on the street as far as the eye can see. Unfortunately, the Excelsior District was also a neighborhood where gangs would walk around at night and where the rivaling high schools would meet, sparking what could be best described as race wars. However, overtime the neighborhood has changed a lot; the schools are doing much better than they were thanks to a breakfast program implemented by the school district and for the most part the gangs no longer come out around, causing the neighborhood to be safer at night.

The Excelsior District had two Catholic parochial schools, one was Epiphany, which was run by the diocese and then there was Corpus Christi, which was run by the Salesians. Initially I was going to go to Epiphany because the school was much closer to my house and my grandma's house, but when my parents found out that they didn't have an afterschool program they sent me to the other school in the neighborhood, and it just so happened to be a Salesian school! The school was run mainly by lay people, but was managed and had a few teachers who were Salesian sisters (FMA's). I remember my days as a child, where I improved my interest in my faith due to the sisters' educating me about God and Catholicism.

Corpus Christi had a diversity that forced me to open my eyes to the different cultures and at the same time, taught me to be culturally sensitive. All my schoolmates were minorities (most of them  being Filipino and Latino/Hispanics), and most of my schoolmates were sons and daughters of immigrants. My fondest memory would be spending time studying and playing sports with my classmates. We were a small class of thirty-five that stuck together through thick and thin for nine years. I will never forget zipping across the court to kick a soccer ball or waiting for my turn to bat against one of the teachers who was pitching.

So there I was, walking past the place I grew up, internalizing all the memories and good times in my head. As I slowly started waking away, I couldn't t help but to turn back and take one final glimpse of the majestic red fence that surrounded my elementary school. The building still remains in tact and yet it no longer houses and parochial school, but a charter school. The only thread I can hang on to is the big red sign that reads Corpus Chrisiti School, which I was told, like our school spirit, will never go down!

 

Visiting and going past the place where my love for Salesians all began was exactly what I needed to prepare myself to go to Gumbo South Sudan! Consequently, I left and started my travels a couple days after this "pilgrimage". Wish me luck!