I'm currently steeped in the paper topic I chose for my policy class this semester, urban youth violence. A cheery subject.

So far, I've written 2 drafts of my research paper, interviewed a friend who grew up in Camden who was shot at 16 (and wrote a paper about it), and now I am reading scores of online articles and blogs to summarize for the next paper, due Thursday. It's intense.

But for me (and many, many other city dwellers), this is not just a topic that is to be researched and discussed at academic institutions.

This is reality.

Just last week, a woman we know was shot in the back and is currently paralyzed from the waist down. She is a young woman, with a small daughter and a family. She was shot over an argument about a place in line.

We hear similar stories 1-2 times a week in Harrisburg, and this is just a small city. I know the problem is even more intensified in some of the big cities. I'm reading a lot about youth violence in Chicago...from Sept. '07-Dec.'08 over 500 children were shot in the city.

When will it end- and how?

Obviously the whole "new year, new blog" thing didn't work out so well...at all. So it's almost a year later and I am trying this again. Why? Because I need to process and reflect, I need some more discipline at this point in my life when I am writing, writing, writing, reading, reading, reading.

I am back in Harrisburg and have mixed feelings about it. There are a lot of things I love about Harrisburg, but sometimes I am overpowered with missing DC, missing Discipleship Year (DY), missing the liveliness of my house, the BIG city, the Church of the Savior community. What an amazing place to be!

But I also feel I am where I should be- in grad school, becoming a social worker, studying away. Also in an impoverished area of Harrisburg, forming relationships and just being here. And also being in a place that is familiar, with a community that I left a year ago to pursue life in a bigger city.

Enough musings, it's bedtime. My head is aching. Good night.