I got my kantele carrying case which will become useful as I'm flipping between my mom's and dad's place every other week. Now I can carry it with little more credibility than what the original cardboard packaging provided.

The inside is blue which can hardly be seen from the first picture because of lighting.

Right, I also got my graduation gift watch back from being in warranty fixed. I had picked this one because I really like the design: elegant yet simple with a twist of futurism; hey, it has a solar panel too!

But the case or the watch weren't the only great things today....

So, my main service place is in a Vantaa city A-clinic (A for alcoholics mainly) and I was recruited from the management department to be involved with the intoxicant prevention program which is called "Track of Choices". From the beginning I was like "Hell yeah. Anything other than rotting in here and pretending to be busy without purpose, of which I was getting increasingly upset about." (Not of course in front of the A-clinic workers.)

So the prevention program is for 6th graders and it's about a story where upper secondary schoolers arrange a house party which goes wrong when alcohol is involved. Using the story we discuss and think about the motives of the characters and some general themes like restrictions and parents, the health side effects, and more. Read more in an earlier post.

All in all it was a nice change from the mundane "job" in the A-clinic I have. But even that gets little tiring when you have read the story for the 30th time! No kidding, all in all I was booked for like 9 or more different days around the Vantaa city in different locations, and I think an average day had like 4 sessions.

One day we had 6 batches!!! I mean that was just CRAZY, and I don't think I've ever experienced such a huge relief than after that day.
The day was so filled up that when we got to the end of a 45 minute session, the following group was already coming in. Then one group was late and we had to cut their time to 30 minutes, in before another group, which was just way too little for the whole thing, so my partner taking the lead improvised by quickly reading the story and then at the end discussing pretty much like: "Be careful at social media, don't do too much drugs and stay safe." Meanwhile I'm following and nodding from the side like: "Yup exactly."
And the last group was going borderline batshit crazy; they barely kept on their asses, some boys started to fool with the table football and then the others started to shift a little too far from the topic itself. But mustering all my masculinity, authority, credibility, eye contact and self-confidence I was just able to keep them engaged to he end without actually needing to boss around them. Even the uninterested boys shifted their attention back to me when I asked them some general questions that didn't require the story.

Their imagination was top notch though: one kid had some table obsession or really felt bad for the table who was having particularly hard time during the party instead of the character that had thrown up because of alcohol poisoning (I genuinely found that amusing tho). But when they got too excited, I just leaned forward while looking at them like, "Ehem", without actually saying anything. That actually worked because one or two of them took the deed to huss the others when realizing I wasn't yet done with my part. That's how you do it!
Right, I had the old-ish woman as a partner who said like two sentences, she would've been fucked if she didn't have me there, haha!

Today was the last day with the track of choices!!!

And oh Loooord what peace did I felt after the last batch (and over 30 times reading that same goddamn story!!!), which happened to be the absolute worst! Though luckily this happened at the very end so it didn't ruin the mood for other sessions, BECAUSE THEY AIN'T COMING ANYMORE!!

But like I said earlier, I'd still take the batshit crazy group over the other extreme, which is the completely dead group with ZERO engagement and initiative, which the last group was exactly like.
Right from the start of introducing the characters, I realized that "this is going to be FREEZING" because they were so damn shelled, some avoiding eye-contact and just so... bleh... awkward. No one had any initiative. Naturally there's always a mix of quiet and active ones. But the whole 10 children? Man, that's like trying to get an unmotivated walrus to climb up to a tree. They only answered something when I asked them directly one by one. Then the two girls just giggled every now and then out of nowhere like pinched by the finger of God. Every time I asked them "You have an idea?" _{"No, we don't, we just giggle because giggggglegggleggglgg."} ...sigh... Then I only settled for the "thumb questionnares"; if yes, thumbs up, if no thumbs down.

Though I didn't show my frustration and I carried the last batch alone (partner, why you no converse with the kids? you were the youth worker of the youth house, right?) with honor to the end.

But yeah, sometimes there's just nothing that could be done. Hope those kids aren't doomed in later stages of life. But I couldn't get angry at them for seeing the young awkward me in them also.

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Btw, youth houses are kinda cool:

From the house of the last day.

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Youth House "Ark", Arkki.

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There were some PokemonGo fans in one house.

Valor

Mystic

Though there was no Team Instinct to be found. Maybe they were unrepresented in the house.

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Actually being a youth worker could maybe be something I'd consider. It would at least be interesting in the sense that there would be no day alike. Creativity also checked. And all the youth workers are super chill and fun people.

Like maybe. And that's a HUGE maybe considering there's been nothing that would've even remotely sounded like a legit choice for me personally. So even this one maybe is quite an accomplishment. And I would've not found this "maybe" without the experience. So, experimenting is quite important for me, can't get nowhere trying to get around it by thinking.

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Here's bunch of more to read about my civil service:

• My Civil Service #1: Explaining the Liability to Military - A necessity for national defence with the cost of human rights?

• My Civil Service #2 - First week in the education center - The worst is already behind

• My Civil Service #3 - The civil service center in the middle of a peaceful countryside

• My Civil Service #4 - Mindfully increasing my life saving skills

• My Civil Service #5 - I FOUND A SERVICE PLACE - The civil service center in the middle of a peaceful countryside, PART 2

• My Civil Service #6 - An end with a new beginning

• My Civil Service #7 - First week in the work service

• My Civil Service #8 - My service was found precious right in the beginning

• Lecture from a REAL PRISONER - My Civil Service #9

• Extreme Mood Swings - My Civil Service #10

• My Civil Service #11: I May Have Discovered My God

• So You Want A Smile On My Face? - My Civil Service #12

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TL: 140

_{Today Left of service}