Everything has an End

Summer is concluding, and so is my work at ACDC as the Youth Chair of Films at the Gate. The youth office of A-VOYCE is all too familiar to me; its light-yellow walls, the piles of cardboard boxes, and everyone at the ACDC has found a place to stay in my memory. I have learned much not through classes and workshops, but through the mere experience of working with people, and sometimes non-cooperating computers. Chinatown may not be my community, and non-profit organizations may not be my future, but they are part of me nonetheless.

Films at the Gate was not the only work I did, I also focused on walking tours and learning about Chinatown. I’ve learned so much more about Chinatown’s past, and its future seems clearer to me. I walked the perimeter of Chinatown countless times, whether I am leading a group of observers or briskly walking to get lunch at many place I’ve never realized were there. But my work was not just walking tours and getting lunch, because the city was paying me to do more that.

Organizing Films at the Gate was a satisfying, and enjoyable experience. As the telemarketer as well as the door-to-door advertiser, I realized their efforts were by far greater than I expected. Through my adventures around the Leather District, I learned that even the average person has unique stories. Nevertheless I was rejected just like all other advertisers. Not only did I meet people while advertising Films at the Gate, but also through meeting my co-workers, also known as friends.

The small community at ACDC is friendly and exciting, from telling stories about raising goats in college, to playing wall ball with a foam artichoke, and then of course walking around in a bittermelon suit. It is my fifth week here and I still hear new stories and I’m never bored of listening to the old ones. When I come back to A-VOYCE for the fall, I’ll look forward to seeing them again.

Well, that’s the end of my blog, and I’ll be back in the fall.

Anthony Cheung, Oak Terrace Youth