Billy Watterson ’15 is the Executive Director of Beat the Streets Providence, an organization that establishes wrestling programs in some of Providence’s poorest middle and high schools to provide students with a positive alternative community to the streets – a community founded on hard work, self-worth, teamwork, and camaraderie. Here Billy reflects on the moments that make him love what he does.

Usually when I write it comes easily. This is especially true when I write about Beat the Streets, but for some reason this story wasn’t easy. I started, stopped, deleted, rewrote, and started over several times. There’s a reason for that.

A lot of what I try to do when I write about Beat the Streets is to tell our success stories and most of those are really easy and even fun to tell. When I tell them I get excited and animated and I want to tell more, and as many, people as I can. Most of the time it’s hard to get me to shut up because I love these stories. Yet for me it’s not the stories that I usually tell that make what I do worthwhile. It’s not the big moments or the giant successes; instead it’s the little moments which matter the most and which make me love what I do. These little moments are harder to write about because while they are important, they are harder to capture. Today I decided to try.

Yesterday morning I was in a meeting with Elisa Almonte — the after-school coordinator for UCAP Middle School. We were covering everything from budgets, to personnel, to scheduling and it’s this: the logistics, the organizing, the fundraising that make what we do possible; but at 8:30 am on a Monday they were also very much what make my brain hurt. That’s the hard-work, what came next is what makes the hard work not just worthwhile, but easy.

The staff member (will call her Mary) who shares an office with Elisa had just walked in. She was also clearly experiencing a case of the Mondays. We briefly exchanged hellos and Elisa and I continued our conversation, until one of our students, David, came up in conversation. I was talking about how hard it was going to be to lose some of the leaders on the team who would graduate. When Mary heard his name she perked up and she smiled.

“We’ll all miss David.”

“He’s the best.” I said and she replied-

“You have no idea.” She looked like she was going to retreat back into her work, but instead looked back up, “Do you know what he said to me the other day?” She paused, “He said that before he started wrestling he never knew he could be good at anything. It doesn’t matter that he’s graduating – he might be graduating, but he’s changed – for good.”

Elisa grinned, “Yeah, and now he was a cocky *$& after he won states. I loved it! You should have seen him.”

After that the conversation and that little moment was over. Mary went back to working off the Mondays and we went back to the same numbers, and schedules, and headaches, which all seemed a little bit easier and a little bit less daunting.

Later on that same day I watched David take the stage at a ceremony at the Mayor’s office and talk about what wrestling had done for him. His dad came up to me after and said he had no idea his boy was going to get up on stage and speak in front of so many people. He was amazed. I told him that David amazed me every day and it was the absolute truth.

That was a big moment, but when I went to sleep that night it was the little one I thought about. The short conversation which reminded me why I love what I do and how important and powerful it can be.