Another good thing about working in the field besides being able to drive - is that you get to feel the community.  It's one thing to sit in our office and see people that come in, and be aware that they are of lower socioeconomic status.  It's another to step foot in a school early in the morning, as the children are being dropped off by their mothers pushing strollers with colorful blankets over them.  No Hummer's, Benzes, BMW's, fathers in power suits juggling Blackberry's with their venti lattes.  The few fathers you see are dressed more often than not in a mechanic suit, ready for their day of work during which they service those very cars that drop other children off.  Those other children.

You have grandmothers holding umbrellas in attempt to block the glow of the rising sun, aged hands holding a reused plastic grocery bag while attempting to restrain their eager grandchild from bolting across the crosswalk.  And the grandchild - hair that sticks up from bedtime the night before, pants a few inches too short for their ever-growing frame, Spiderman shoes that have seen much use from the sandbox and being pounded on the asphalt during many a recess.  You walk across the playing field, wondering why they even bother calling it a "field," as it is nothing more than broken asphalt with patches here and there trying to hide the aging cracks. 

As the kids around you are running around, yelling, screaming, voices of joy - you look up at the pale blue sky with its wispy white clouds that look like cotton balls being pulled apart - and breathe deep the El Monte air.  Or Rosemead.  San Gabriel.  Monterey Park.  Doesn't matter where you are - it's different everywhere, but the air tells the story.  Hold it, savor it.  Then exhale.  Ahhhhhhhhhh.  There's something that you can just feel - the heartbeat of a community, the sense of the personality a particular school has.  Your other senses are heightened as you walk the sidewalks, the ramps leading up to the bungalows, taking note of the different textures, landscaping, curves and bends. 

Having a desk in an office is nice.  Familiarity.  Comfort.  Utility.  Productivity.

But being out there, you almost feel like you're an ambassador attempting to change the world.  There too is a sense of familiarity as you've visited these schools before.  But there's also a sense of the unknown, the excitement of seeing what different places are going to bring to you each and every day as you move along in hopes of changing the world for the better.  One breath of El Monte air at a time.

In the still of the early morning on the Upper Rio Hondo bike trail, just north of the El Monte airport. 

Isn't it ironic that the younger we were the older we wanted to be,

And the older we become the younger we wish we were . . .