By Trevor Lawson, Contributing Writer
It was a cold morning, cold enough to see my breath as I anxiously walked to Chapel B on January 9, 2026. I was on my way to set up Chapel B for the Kids Creating Awareness Together graduation.
It was finally here, the day that we had been planning for four months. I thought the team and I had everything planned to the minute as I reached the door. Immediately the temperature inside, in stark contrast to the temperature outside, washed over me like a tidal wave and I began to sweat. I think I was sweating more from the anxiety than from the temperature. But nonetheless I set out to the task at hand, setting up tables and chairs for the graduation.
The team and I finished setting up in about 20 minutes. Then I was notified by a good friend and the secretary for Kid Cat Eliazar Gurra, “Hey Trevor, we have a meeting with the Lt. this morning and the rest of the San Quentin tour guides at 9:00 a.m. in the chapel library.” My heart rate and anxiety went through the roof. The graduation was supposed to start at 9:30.
There I was crammed in the tiny chapel library with 19 other people as we discussed tour guide feed back from last year. Meanwhile I look around the room and realized that almost the entire Kid Cat Graduation Planning Committee was in the meeting, including the 2 hosts who were supposed to get things started, Eli and myself. I look at my watch and start to panic 9:25 then 9:35. Our sponsor Mrs. Torres was pacing back and forth looking at me through the window of the library. Our vice chairman Oscar Acosta is going in and out of the meeting trying to keep things calm and orderly with the guests coming in. I look at my watch 9:45 a.m. and I try to quietly scoot my chair back from the table, unsuccessfully, as Oscar points to me. I crawl under the table to get to the door of the library, heart racing and embarrassed for leaving the meeting early I quickly left to get things started.
I rushed to the stage mic in hand to greet the 4 graduating classes of Kid Cat and outside sponsors. I knew from the facilitator training through Kid Cat that the best thing to do is to be open, honest, and transparent about the delay in starting. As I started talking to the crowd my anxiety and heart rate lowered. I passed the mic off to Eli looked at the schedule, then my watch and we were right on time to my surprise.
From the stage I looked out to see other Kid Cat members being of service to help the graduation move smoothly. Oscar was helping set up the food in the back, Ly was manning the door helping people find their seats, Mrs. T was helping the food caterers. Right then I was reminded of what an old friend Jason Flowers used to tell me, “Trust the process’ and I did. The rest of the graduation was a huge success with a lot of positive feedback in the days after.
As I reflect back to all my time in the Kid Cat membership group I have gained so much to better my life through the group lessons. But also, and I think most importantly, the humanity, grace, compassion, service, and dedication to change that the Kid Cat membership group has shown me has allowed me to see that true, honest, lasting positive change is possible. And that we can cause positive meaningful ripple effects to go out into our community through being of service.
I am truly blessed to be able go be a part of a group of people who are of service to the community. It is said that you are only as good as those around you and if that is true I must be great because of this group around me. I was able to trust the process and trust those on the team and everything worked out in the end. I cannot wait to see the next act of service to the community that we will be involved in. Stay tuned!