"Ms. you can talk mad black."

So I'm at fieldwork today. It's my first day working entirely alone at both locations.

To update those of you who don't know:
I'm studying to be a school psychologist. I'll have my degree at the end of this semester but I've got to do an internship before I complete the program. So this semester I'm doing a mini-internship at a local mental health center where I go into a public school and provide whats essentially therapy to junior high school students.

So, like I was saying, I'm at fieldwork today. I'm holding this group... awesome group of kids.. all girls. You know how the pre-teen years were. All hormonal and awkward. Bad make-up, bad skin, weird obsessions with pop icons... whatever. It's so cool. I feel so privileged to get to see these kids going through it and knowing that there is a beacon of hope - a light at the end of the tunnel that makes up the hell also known as adolescence.

Okay, back to my point... promise I won't get sidetracked again.. er... maybe. So we're there and I had this whole lesson prep-ed about learning effective methods to cope with the troubles life often throws at you. Got my big manual on my lap. Start lecturing and I notice them getting all bored not 5 minutes into it. So I close the book and chuck it behind me.

I say, "Okay. So what's up. I know the lessons can be bad but they ain't that bad. And I'm pretty fun (they smile) so there's gotta be something else on your minds that's better than this."

Girl # 1: "Hehehe." (pokes girl #2)
Girl # 2: "I ain't telling her. You tell her."
Me: (Paranoia begins to set in. My mind is racing: Do I have a booger and they're trying to tell me. I wipe my nose and casually glance down at my hand... nothing. Ahhh!!!)
Girl #3: "What are yous laughing about? Whats so funny?"
Girl #4: "Huh? I don't get it. What's going on?"
Me: (In my head: Oh thank god I'm not the only one that's lost) "Okay. Wait a second. What's going on?"
Girl #5: "Okay. Okay. I'll tell her."
Girl #1: "No! No! Let me. Let me tell her. I'll tell it good."
Girl #2: "HAHAHAHA!"
Girl #5: "No uh. It's my story to tell."
Girl #1: "So there was this girl last week. And she thought this boy liked-ed her. And..."
Girl #5: "No uh. That's not how it goes."

::Bickering ensues::

The rest of us stare in wide-eyed wonder of what's occurring before us... confused as all hell.

So they proceed to tell me about a fight that occurred between Girl #5 and this other chick in her class. Now, the last time one of the kids in the group got in a fight my supervisor and I tried to break it down logically. Tried to talk to them about the consequences of fighting and how it never solves anything and blah, blah, blah. Now being a city chick myself, I know just as well as the next person that sometimes fighting is necessary... especially as a pre-teen. Now, luckily, no one was hurt and their teachers and parents had already been notified and both girls got a good talking-to by the school administration.
So I proceed to break it down for them.

Sidenote: My voice is somewhat involuntarily adaptable. Those who've been around me long enough can tell you that dependent upon my situation, I can sound like I've got a bad ass brooklyn accent (like a goomba tough girl), or a ghetto brooklyn accent, or no brooklyn accent whatsoever. Whenever I'm in a "normal" situation - whatever normal is - I tend to sound like I have no accent and have been told on many occassions that I don't sound like I'm from New York at all. But ya piss me off... and that's when you'll see my homegrown accent emerge.

SO, I start talking to them about how I'm disappointed n all but that I can understand why it happened. I turn to the girl, I ask her if it was worth it. She's like, "No." So I ask why not and she tells me it wasn't worth it because it was just a misunderstanding that the other chick didn't want to let go of and didn't want to talk it out (like we practiced in previous groups).

So I tell the group, "Well, not for nothing, but if I'm gonna get into a fight, you can bet your ass it better be worth it. Because if I can walk away from that and think to myself... 'boy, that was so not worth it'... I wouldn't be getting in the fight to begin with! I mean, for real. If I'm convinced that fighting this chick is a good idea, then she must have done something to really piss me off. Like, I mean, this chick was obviously just bored and decided to start talking shit because she got nothing better to do....."

As my rant continues... [And yes, I totally curse in front of my kids. Cursing a huge part of my vocabulary... I love it.] I start to notice they're looking at me funny. So I stop and I ask, "What's up? I got something on my face? What?"

One of them turns to me and goes, "Nah Miss. You got all ghetto all of a sudden. We're used to you talking mad white."

LOL... she totally called me out. Now I have to admit. I tend to not have control over my accent changing. But I totally have control over the words I use. I was completely using all the ghetto-slang I've learned over the years growing up in Brooklyn. Chillin with F.E.B. on 6-1, heading out to Bergen & Under to hit up the hotspot with Caesar and June, visiting heads out in Bushwick with my girl Vikki... ah! Those were the days.

Crazy... those kids went on for the rest of the group about my voice; saying, "Miss, I didn't realize you could talk mad black."

What can say? You can get the girl outta the ghetto but you can't take the ghetto outta the girl.

;)