This blog will be about environment and transportation – I promise – but this experience was so amazing I just had to share it first.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n I’m a community mentor in a program called Operation Jump Start that pairs adults with kids in the Long Beach Unified School District. <\/span>My student is about to start 11th<\/sup> grade at Lakewood High.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n On Sunday, August 26, the program staff arranged for us to attend Surf Camp. <\/span>I had no interest in surfing myself, but my student wanted to go, so I packed several books and brought a chair, planning to park myself under a tree for the duration. <\/span>No chance. <\/span>For one thing, Will Rogers State Beach up in Malibu has no trees.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n For another, all the mentors were asked to fully participate and help, even if we weren’t going to surf. <\/span>We began by gathering in a huge circle – mentors, staff, volunteer surf instructors, and about sixty kids from OJS and another inner-Los Angeles mentoring program. <\/span>We greeted each other in Swahili and, in groups of twelve, made our commitment for the day. <\/span>Ours was to communicate and encourage each other to have fun.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n Next came “initiation” for all who were there for the first time. <\/span>ALL. <\/span>We had to run a gauntlet between two lines of people, right down into the ocean until we were wet from head to toe – after yelling our names into the megaphone. <\/span>Dreading it, I yelled my name as loud as I could and ran into the water without thinking too much – and promptly fell down on the slippery rocks.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n Finally it was time to surf. <\/span>The kids got into wet suits and went out into the not inconsiderable waves with the instructors. <\/span>They had, as you might expect, varying levels of success, but one thing I learned about my student and her friend: <\/span>they are persistent! <\/span>They stayed out for at least two hours, falling off the board and swimming right back out to try again, not even coming in until well after the whistle blew. <\/span>I told them both that this quality would be very helpful to them in their lives. <\/span>Neither one knew what the word “persistent” meant.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n A typical OJS lunch is a Subway sandwich and a bag of chips – and I’m not complaining! – but today was different. <\/span>Local sushi entrepreneur Travis Kamiyama had set up an entire open-air kitchen and prepared dozens and dozens of plates of fresh sushi for us. <\/span>Imagine eating all the (normally very expensive) sushi you wanted on a beach with friends, sun and waves. <\/span>It was a treat none of us had been expecting. <\/span>The students, after the usual “eeew, raw fish,” mostly tried and liked the sushi, mine included.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/span> <\/p>\n We ended the day in another huge circle, thanking Travis and the volunteers and acknowledging why each of us needed to be there that day. <\/span>I’m torn between whether my essential reason was to learn that my student is so persistent, or simply to experience eating sushi on the beach.<\/span><\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","inline_featured_image":false,"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_":"","_author_alias":"","cap-aim":"","cap-description":"","cap-display_name":"","cap-first_name":"","cap-jabber":"","cap-last_name":"","cap-linked_account":"","cap-newspack_employer":"","cap-newspack_job_title":"","cap-newspack_phone_number":"","cap-newspack_role":"","cap-user_email":"","cap-user_login":"","cap-website":"","cap-yahooim":"","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_email_html":"","newspack_email_type":"","newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_hide_page_title":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_show_share_buttons":"","newspack_sponsor_byline_prefix":"","newspack_sponsor_disclaimer_override":"","newspack_sponsor_flag_override":"","newspack_sponsor_only_direct":"","newspack_sponsor_url":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-6167","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hi-lo","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6167","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6167"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6167\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6167"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6167"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6167"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newspack_spnsrs_tax?post=6167"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lbpost.com\/esd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=6167"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}