I did not have any pre-conceived notions of Baltimore City youth before starting this internship. My views were the same as I have for any group of children—they are going to be a handful haha. I’ve said this a few times before, but working with children is not my strong point. I always feel as though I’m not excited and perky enough for them. So coming into this, my only assumption of the Baltimore City kids is that they would not like me.

It wasn’t until a comment someone said in conversation about my internship a few weeks before traveling here that got me thinking.

“Phew. You’re going to be working in Baltimore? Do you know if it’s inner city kids because you know how that’s gonna be.”

As a matter of fact, no, I did not know how “that’s gonna be.” All kids are the same right? But then I started thinking of all of possible scenarios and none of them were positive. I imagined children fighting, throwing things at me, using profanity, wreaking havoc in the classroom… the list goes on.

However stepping into the cafeteria where all the children were eating breakfast on the first day of camp, I felt at ease. Firstly, I assumed there would be about three times as more kids. Secondly, when I finally got my assigned kids in my classroom, they were not nearly as bad as I envisioned.

Sigh of relief.