Efrain Gonzalez currently serves as the Executive Director at the Tom Taylor Family YMCA. He shares his "Why the Y" story.
Growing up, the YMCA wasn’t anything more than dodgeball after school, running in the cafeteria, and pizza on Thursdays if it was the rare Thursday that I got pizza money. It wasn’t about community. It wasn’t about values or fundraising or impact. Those words didn’t exist to me as a young child growing up in Hawaii. My father enlisted and soon we were off to other places. Georgia, Germany, California, and I would not interact with the Y again until I was 20.
Fast forward to San Francisco years later, I was a young adult with no money in a breathtakingly beautiful city. I hurriedly applied for random jobs attempting to create some form of income as quickly as possible. I had a background in aquatics and lifeguarding and there were quite a few pools hiring, one of them being the YMCA. Applications were sent and some calls were received. I landed a few interviews, but these were for part-time jobs. This wouldn’t be my future. I just needed something for now.
I haven’t told many people this, and I am not sure why I am typing it now, but I certainly wasn’t in a great place when I started with the YMCA. The part-time job I landed was as a lifeguard at the Palo Alto Family YMCA in the heart of affluence in Silicon Valley. I was always early. I would work out. Shower. Lifeguard. Swim. Shower. Then leave. Sounds disciplined. It wasn’t, just necessity. When I say no money, I really mean no money. Of all the stupid things I did, having no money and moving to one of the most expensive places to live might have been at the top of the list. I was living in my car.
As the weeks passed and I became more and more familiar with the interior of my 2007 Corolla, my work ethic began to be noticed. Again, I don’t think I was particularly special. Just there on time, out of pure necessity because I could take a shower. I wasn’t bought into the Y. I didn’t care about the mission. Although, after a little over a month I was asked if I would like to teach swim lessons. More hours. A little more pay.
I began to enjoy coming to work finally. I slowly made bonds with the team. Friends. I learned about Safety Around the Water, our free swim lesson outreach program and I started teaching more and more swim lessons. Then private lessons. Then coaching the swim team. Now there were lots of reasons I didn’t need to be sitting in my car for long hours. I was finding a place to belong. I still didn’t know it yet though.
In one of my swim lessons. There was a little girl named Liani. Liani was 7. Liani was quiet and shy. Liani was NOT very fond of swim lessons. For the first few lessons she wouldn’t participate, but I had a way with kids. Just being silly. Getting on their level. Being patient and listening to what they had to say when they were speaking, or not speaking. Halfway through our session, Liani started to smile more when she came in. She started participating. Swimming a few feet to me. Then halfway across the pool. Then ALL the way across the pool.
I remember that lesson. It was the lesson that I finally understood what the YMCA was. Her little arms crashing over and over again into the water a little more sporadically than I instructed, but she made it. She screamed in celebration and her mom was in the corner in proud tears. I looked over and sighed thinking “one of these parents…” After the lesson, I got out to speak with all the parents. Adriana was Liani’s mom. She was waiting patiently for me. Her face still wet from the tears.
“She did awesome today, Adriana!”
“Did you see me, mom? Did you see me swim across the pool mom!?” Liani was over the moon.
“I saw you! You did so great!”
Adriana thanked me. Then thanked me again. Then again. I told her it wasn’t a big deal. I was supposed to teach her how to swim across the pool. It was just my job.
“You don’t understand, Efrain. Liani loves coming here. She talks about you and swim lessons all the time!”
“That’s really great! I’m happy she likes lessons!”
“No, you don’t understand, Efrain. Liani has Asperger’s…” She paused. The entire pool felt quiet all of a sudden. “We have tried soccer, basketball, dance, and Liani always gets bullied. Liani doesn’t fit in.” Her voice got softer. “She goes to these programs and she has to deal with kids treating her different. Always treating her so different… She has to deal with these emotions. Like an adult.”
“Oh.” Was all I could muster. Tears were swelling up as the gravity of the situation started to weigh on my heart.
“Then we find the YMCA. Then we find you. And when Liani walks into the pool she is looking everywhere until she sees you. Then she sees you. And she smiles. And for 30 minutes in her swim lesson, she just… gets to be a kid. For 30 minutes out of her day. With you. At the YMCA.”
That was about 8 years, 7 roles, and 2 YMCA associations ago. I was lost back then. But the YMCA found me. Liani found me. And I am forever grateful.