Wednesday, February 17, 2010
LONG TIME!
I am back in Sacramento for Round 2 Project at Oak Ridge Elementary tutoring and mentoring kids! It hasn't even been 2 weeks at the school and it already poses to be a great challenge. I have already fallen in love with my kids and some of them are already growing attatched to me. My classroom is the Learning Center and Special Ed. Exactly where I belong and I am so lucky to have gotten it. One little girl already looks up to me and this feeling is like no other. These kids were never allowed to be kids and I am happy to be there as a positive role model for them. More to come!
Sunday, November 15, 2009
OFF TO VASHON!
I can't believe training is over and that it has been a month already. I have met so many amazing people, a few I know I will have in my life forever, made so many wonderful moments and mental pictures that will never fade, had some rough times, and I wouldn't change a thing. Induction was on Friday so now we are all official Corps members!
I leave Monday, Novemeber, 16th, at 7am for Vashon Island, Washington with my Blue 1 team... also known as Bluno! We packed today for our 2 day trip in the van and an 8 week project stint. I am so excited to see so much more and finally do what I came here to do! I am going to learn so much about myself and what I'm capable of and all I am right now is optimistic. That's all I can do right now in order to ensure a wonderful outcome.
It's hard to leave some people here on campus. I have grown to have a connection with a couple that I never thought I would gain within just a month. Someone in particular has made such an impact on me that I can honestly say I will never be the same person. I can even see this change in me and knowing I can be the person I want to be in a setting such as this, without a care, lets me know I can already do more than I thought I could. Some people leave footprints on our lives that the weather can't erase.
I will post my address on Vashon Island and I will be sending snail mail from there as well! I love you all, miss you, and you better believe I will stay in touch <3
I leave Monday, Novemeber, 16th, at 7am for Vashon Island, Washington with my Blue 1 team... also known as Bluno! We packed today for our 2 day trip in the van and an 8 week project stint. I am so excited to see so much more and finally do what I came here to do! I am going to learn so much about myself and what I'm capable of and all I am right now is optimistic. That's all I can do right now in order to ensure a wonderful outcome.
It's hard to leave some people here on campus. I have grown to have a connection with a couple that I never thought I would gain within just a month. Someone in particular has made such an impact on me that I can honestly say I will never be the same person. I can even see this change in me and knowing I can be the person I want to be in a setting such as this, without a care, lets me know I can already do more than I thought I could. Some people leave footprints on our lives that the weather can't erase.
I will post my address on Vashon Island and I will be sending snail mail from there as well! I love you all, miss you, and you better believe I will stay in touch <3
Sunday, November 8, 2009
CHANGE & Mendocino
It's been a while! SO much going on here! Still so many classroom trainings but the recent ones haven't been that bad. More activities and team building stuff. Less sitting, more doing week I guess you could call it. Also, we are no long in our pods. We got broken up into units... I am in the Blue Unit. It was quite an emotional night. It seems that everyone grew close to their pods and so when they broke everyone up it was quite crazy. They made it a scavenger hunt... which made my anxiety shoot through the roof. I am the only one from my pod who didn't't have someone else from their pod in their unit. It was quite overwhelming to see about 70 new people in the same place and realize I was going to have to do the whole getting-to-know-you thing all over again. When I finally spotted a few familiar faces it calmed me down, but it never left my conscienceness that something new was beginning and that this program is all about last minute, the unknown and change. I knew this before I got here, but it was sinking in and the reality of it was showing it's face. I made myself breathe. It turned out that my good friend Chase is in the same unit and that made me smile. We didn't get to find out our teams on this night which made everything even more unsure.
The next night we actually found out our teams. The entire Corps had a pizza dinner together which meant our pod got together for the last time. It was bittersweet for me. I had gotten closer to some than to others but it was weird to know things were going to be drastically different from that point on. We enjoyed eachother and then we were sent on, yet another, scavenger hunt. Not too me a negative nancy, but I was not thrilled. I just wanted to know who my team was already and begin the process.... again. I soon learned that my team will forever be BLUE 1. Our team leader, Jim, just got back from serving in American Samoa.... which is incredibly awesome. It seemed like my new team was going to be fine together.
The next few days we had more trainings. I also learned that I was one of maybe 2 or 3 people (out of our 10 member team) who wanted/were qualified to drive. I was super nervous! Turned out I did well on the driving test, passed, and now I am so happy I did it. The day after the driving test we left for Camp Mendocino. Camp Mendocino is about 4 hours north of Sacramento on a beautiful mountain. It's a camp for underprivledged kids and it's the most amazing place I have seen in a while. It's in the Red Wood forests so of course it was amazing. We left on a Wednesday morning and I was the first one at the wheel. It was so breathtaking to see mountains and rolling hills in the scenery rather than the regular flat landcape I'm used to. I knew at that moment I am living my dream, and if I am seeing such things so early in the program, I can't even imagine what's in store later on down the road. It was a moment of clarity; why I'm here. It was a wonderful trip up.
When we arrived to the camp it was a breath of fresh air: literally and metaphorically. It smelled so wonderful and the air was so crisp. There were open aired cabins with about 6 pairs of bunkbeds in all. The owners were so wonderful and made every meal for us (this was such a treat as we always have to make our meals). This trip was mainly about team building. We did many activities, a ropes course, a rock wall, and a zip line! And YES, I did it all! It was such a goal oriented experience. I had some difficulty during part of the ropes course and the team really helped me through it. It's been a long time since I have felt that sense of team work and it really was because of them that I didn't give up. It was a wonderful feeling. I believe this team is going to be able to get through a lot together. As long as we all help eachother stay above the water in high tide.
The nights were really fun in Mendocino. There were campfires, people brought their guitars and we all sang, I got to get to know some of my new teammates, & I got to have moments I never thought I would experience. When it was time for bed, we all pretty much wore our long underwear, sweat pants, shirts, sweatshirts, hoodie, hat, parka, socks, and maybe even more. It was obviously cold. Actual sleep was hard to come by, so were showers, so it made us all appreciate more of what we have on campus. Not to mention it didn't really matter how smelly or gross we were because everyone was! haha
On our way back to Sacramento, I was the first one to drive down the mountain. We were the last team to leave from our unit so when I was driving down there were vans arriving with teams from other units. When I was passing 2 vans all of a sudden the fire extinguisher exploded in the front seat! We all had no idea what happened and since I was driving I was in charge of unlocking the doors. I couldn't see anything and barely could breathe. I could hear everyone coughing and my team leader yelling to open the doors. Finally I found the lock and everyone fell out of the van.... still coughing. We still had no idea what happened. The other 2 vans stopped to help. We then realized everyone walked through poison oak when getting out of the van. We had to go all the way back to the camp and get medicine and since we all had long underwear on, stripped off our pants and shoes and walked around in our socks and long johns. It was quite a sight.
We finally got back to campus at about 6pm and went out to dinner together. The rest of the weekend we had off, which was wonderful.
The next night we actually found out our teams. The entire Corps had a pizza dinner together which meant our pod got together for the last time. It was bittersweet for me. I had gotten closer to some than to others but it was weird to know things were going to be drastically different from that point on. We enjoyed eachother and then we were sent on, yet another, scavenger hunt. Not too me a negative nancy, but I was not thrilled. I just wanted to know who my team was already and begin the process.... again. I soon learned that my team will forever be BLUE 1. Our team leader, Jim, just got back from serving in American Samoa.... which is incredibly awesome. It seemed like my new team was going to be fine together.
The next few days we had more trainings. I also learned that I was one of maybe 2 or 3 people (out of our 10 member team) who wanted/were qualified to drive. I was super nervous! Turned out I did well on the driving test, passed, and now I am so happy I did it. The day after the driving test we left for Camp Mendocino. Camp Mendocino is about 4 hours north of Sacramento on a beautiful mountain. It's a camp for underprivledged kids and it's the most amazing place I have seen in a while. It's in the Red Wood forests so of course it was amazing. We left on a Wednesday morning and I was the first one at the wheel. It was so breathtaking to see mountains and rolling hills in the scenery rather than the regular flat landcape I'm used to. I knew at that moment I am living my dream, and if I am seeing such things so early in the program, I can't even imagine what's in store later on down the road. It was a moment of clarity; why I'm here. It was a wonderful trip up.
When we arrived to the camp it was a breath of fresh air: literally and metaphorically. It smelled so wonderful and the air was so crisp. There were open aired cabins with about 6 pairs of bunkbeds in all. The owners were so wonderful and made every meal for us (this was such a treat as we always have to make our meals). This trip was mainly about team building. We did many activities, a ropes course, a rock wall, and a zip line! And YES, I did it all! It was such a goal oriented experience. I had some difficulty during part of the ropes course and the team really helped me through it. It's been a long time since I have felt that sense of team work and it really was because of them that I didn't give up. It was a wonderful feeling. I believe this team is going to be able to get through a lot together. As long as we all help eachother stay above the water in high tide.
The nights were really fun in Mendocino. There were campfires, people brought their guitars and we all sang, I got to get to know some of my new teammates, & I got to have moments I never thought I would experience. When it was time for bed, we all pretty much wore our long underwear, sweat pants, shirts, sweatshirts, hoodie, hat, parka, socks, and maybe even more. It was obviously cold. Actual sleep was hard to come by, so were showers, so it made us all appreciate more of what we have on campus. Not to mention it didn't really matter how smelly or gross we were because everyone was! haha
On our way back to Sacramento, I was the first one to drive down the mountain. We were the last team to leave from our unit so when I was driving down there were vans arriving with teams from other units. When I was passing 2 vans all of a sudden the fire extinguisher exploded in the front seat! We all had no idea what happened and since I was driving I was in charge of unlocking the doors. I couldn't see anything and barely could breathe. I could hear everyone coughing and my team leader yelling to open the doors. Finally I found the lock and everyone fell out of the van.... still coughing. We still had no idea what happened. The other 2 vans stopped to help. We then realized everyone walked through poison oak when getting out of the van. We had to go all the way back to the camp and get medicine and since we all had long underwear on, stripped off our pants and shoes and walked around in our socks and long johns. It was quite a sight.
We finally got back to campus at about 6pm and went out to dinner together. The rest of the weekend we had off, which was wonderful.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Day off!!! Time to update!
Hey y'all! I know it's been about 4 days since I got here but I am finally allowed some time to do some housekeeping! I can't believe it's only been 4 days! It feels likes weeks, and when speaking to my people here I am definitely not the only one who feels that way. The first day we were broken up into what are called Pods. There are about 12 people in each pod and they are just assigned alphabetically. My "pod people" are some of the goofiest people I have ever met :o) Two of the girls happen to be my roommates. That's actually nice so then we can help eachother out about meeting times and such. By the way, my roommates are awesome. The 2 girls next door I also love. I definitely lucked out in that area. Honestly though, everyone that I have met, so far, is so fun and nice. Whenever you seen someone walking around an automatic "hello" and/or smile appears, no matter if you have met them before or not. It's a small community of people of like minds but at the same time so different. The perfect place for me.
So, day one was a long day of flying: Tallahassee to Atlanta; Atlanta to Denver; Denver to Sacramento. I'm still not a fan of flying but once I got here I was fine:o) There was of course a big group of us there at the end and we broke up and took vans to the campus. Once we got here we started in processing. In processing was basically getting all our uniforms, IDs, room numbers, getting aquainted, etc. It was quite hectic. There are about 260 Corps Members (CM) and then there are Team Leaders (TL) and Staff. There aren't as many TL as there normally would be because quite a few are actually in American Samoa helping with disaster relief there. Incredibly incredible if you ask me. It's very uncertain when they will return since, I think they said, there are only 2 flights going out of there a week. Lets just hope they return safely.
The second day began at 6am with a provided breakfast. Not too shabby. It's amazing how your picky-ness will disappear after only a few short hours. Anyhoo, we had lots of trainings that day, which meant a lot of sitting, a lot of listening, and A LOT of paper work! The TLs actually did some safety skits for us that were HILARIOUS! These people work so hard but they definitely know how to have fun! I met some people at breaks that were awesome. We also had some Pod meetings. Then we had dinner that was provided for us. That night I met up with a friend I met on Facebook before all this and he invited me to a local bar a bunch of people were going to. I thought, "why not?!" That's right... the second night I was here I went to a bar...haha. It was very small and full of AmeriCorps people. I had a service project the next day so I knew I needed my rest so Chase, the friend I went with, walked me all the way back home, and then he went back for a while. I told you these people were awesome!
Friday we had our first service project! My group's project was helping out in an organic community veggie/fruit garden (I THOUGHT OF YOU, NATHAN!). I was excited! The older people who ran it needed help moving mulch around. I think we worked for 6 or 7 hours just moving mulch around. Of course it got hot and we got sweaty and stinky and a whole lot of sun, but when we were done it was so cool to look around at our work and know we helped these people so much. It would have really been hard for them to do it alone in one day. The garden was actually going to have an open house the day after so they needed help very much to make it look presentable. During the day I got to get to know some of the girls on my team. It's so cool to learn about people's lives and how different everyone is. After our hard days work, we reflected as a group on the highs and lows. If you know me, you know I had talking in big groups. But this time it just flowed out of me like I never had an issue about it. I thought it was about time I break out and just be me. It might sound weird but I really think the internal me was yelling to JUST DO IT! That moment was a big deal to me and I don't think I will ever forget it.
A funny moment from the service day was when our Pod leader, Dan, asked us to go around the group and say what super power we would like to have. Before anyone else went, he said he would love to be able to teleport to anywhere in the world because he hates the travel aspect of travel... as do I. I knew I couldn't say the same thing so when it was my turn I said that I would love to have the capability to make everyone around me calm and happy. It got a good response so I was satisfied. Later that night both my roommates tell me that they thought that was the coolest answer and that I was the nicest person... hippie-like. This made me smile. I'm finally letting others see who I am and they are actually seeing it. This feeling is amazing and I don't remember ever feeling it. I hope I can keep it up. In fact, I plan to. :o)
The night of our service we went grocery shopping.. From now on we are responsible for our own meals. It was crazy going into the store with about 15 people, buying food for about 25 (2 pods cook dinners for eachother). Even though I was exhausted I hung out with a friend afterwards, watch It's Always Sunny in Philly, laughed HARD, then went to my room and fell asleep. What a great day.
I wake up the next morning and my whole upper body is sore! They best kind of sore though (sore of course from the hard labor before). Before I know it, though, I will be in shape and things will be easier. From about 8:30am to 4:30pm we sat in a room and listened to trainings on safety and stuff like that. It's amazing how stiff ones body can get and how tiring sitting can be. That was a slow day. I don't think so much info at one time is a good way to cement it into people brains but I'm sure we will all learn with practice. That's how I learn. That was yesterday, so last night my Pod and I went to an amazing Mongolian BBQ. You make your dish out of raw meats and veggies and then top it off with cold pasta. You then give it to the cooks and they cook your bowl right in front of you! It was delish! I also got to talk to 3 other girls my age and had a blast :o) When I got back I went with my friend Chase and his friends (which I met) and we walked over to a nearby gas station to get ICEES. The walks and getting out are much needed since we are all living in such close quarters. When we got back to campus we watched the episodes of Community that we missed and laughed until it hurt, talked for a while, listened to some music, then it was time for bed.
This morning we had 7am physicals. They weren't too bad. Then we had to make a trip to Target to get some personal items. The van rides with my Pod are always interesting and fun. Now I'm back, finally able to update you all, doing laundry, and hopefully going to go see Where The Wild Things Are in downtown Sacramento. Fingers crossed! I miss you all and hope everyone is doing well! I am doing groovy and gain more confidence everyday for myself and what lies ahead of me for this program. There are hard moments, of course, but I have amazing people around me to pull me out of whatever funk my brain is in (they of course don't know I might be in a funk but they still pull me out :o)). More to come!
peace&love,
mags
So, day one was a long day of flying: Tallahassee to Atlanta; Atlanta to Denver; Denver to Sacramento. I'm still not a fan of flying but once I got here I was fine:o) There was of course a big group of us there at the end and we broke up and took vans to the campus. Once we got here we started in processing. In processing was basically getting all our uniforms, IDs, room numbers, getting aquainted, etc. It was quite hectic. There are about 260 Corps Members (CM) and then there are Team Leaders (TL) and Staff. There aren't as many TL as there normally would be because quite a few are actually in American Samoa helping with disaster relief there. Incredibly incredible if you ask me. It's very uncertain when they will return since, I think they said, there are only 2 flights going out of there a week. Lets just hope they return safely.
The second day began at 6am with a provided breakfast. Not too shabby. It's amazing how your picky-ness will disappear after only a few short hours. Anyhoo, we had lots of trainings that day, which meant a lot of sitting, a lot of listening, and A LOT of paper work! The TLs actually did some safety skits for us that were HILARIOUS! These people work so hard but they definitely know how to have fun! I met some people at breaks that were awesome. We also had some Pod meetings. Then we had dinner that was provided for us. That night I met up with a friend I met on Facebook before all this and he invited me to a local bar a bunch of people were going to. I thought, "why not?!" That's right... the second night I was here I went to a bar...haha. It was very small and full of AmeriCorps people. I had a service project the next day so I knew I needed my rest so Chase, the friend I went with, walked me all the way back home, and then he went back for a while. I told you these people were awesome!
Friday we had our first service project! My group's project was helping out in an organic community veggie/fruit garden (I THOUGHT OF YOU, NATHAN!). I was excited! The older people who ran it needed help moving mulch around. I think we worked for 6 or 7 hours just moving mulch around. Of course it got hot and we got sweaty and stinky and a whole lot of sun, but when we were done it was so cool to look around at our work and know we helped these people so much. It would have really been hard for them to do it alone in one day. The garden was actually going to have an open house the day after so they needed help very much to make it look presentable. During the day I got to get to know some of the girls on my team. It's so cool to learn about people's lives and how different everyone is. After our hard days work, we reflected as a group on the highs and lows. If you know me, you know I had talking in big groups. But this time it just flowed out of me like I never had an issue about it. I thought it was about time I break out and just be me. It might sound weird but I really think the internal me was yelling to JUST DO IT! That moment was a big deal to me and I don't think I will ever forget it.
A funny moment from the service day was when our Pod leader, Dan, asked us to go around the group and say what super power we would like to have. Before anyone else went, he said he would love to be able to teleport to anywhere in the world because he hates the travel aspect of travel... as do I. I knew I couldn't say the same thing so when it was my turn I said that I would love to have the capability to make everyone around me calm and happy. It got a good response so I was satisfied. Later that night both my roommates tell me that they thought that was the coolest answer and that I was the nicest person... hippie-like. This made me smile. I'm finally letting others see who I am and they are actually seeing it. This feeling is amazing and I don't remember ever feeling it. I hope I can keep it up. In fact, I plan to. :o)
The night of our service we went grocery shopping.. From now on we are responsible for our own meals. It was crazy going into the store with about 15 people, buying food for about 25 (2 pods cook dinners for eachother). Even though I was exhausted I hung out with a friend afterwards, watch It's Always Sunny in Philly, laughed HARD, then went to my room and fell asleep. What a great day.
I wake up the next morning and my whole upper body is sore! They best kind of sore though (sore of course from the hard labor before). Before I know it, though, I will be in shape and things will be easier. From about 8:30am to 4:30pm we sat in a room and listened to trainings on safety and stuff like that. It's amazing how stiff ones body can get and how tiring sitting can be. That was a slow day. I don't think so much info at one time is a good way to cement it into people brains but I'm sure we will all learn with practice. That's how I learn. That was yesterday, so last night my Pod and I went to an amazing Mongolian BBQ. You make your dish out of raw meats and veggies and then top it off with cold pasta. You then give it to the cooks and they cook your bowl right in front of you! It was delish! I also got to talk to 3 other girls my age and had a blast :o) When I got back I went with my friend Chase and his friends (which I met) and we walked over to a nearby gas station to get ICEES. The walks and getting out are much needed since we are all living in such close quarters. When we got back to campus we watched the episodes of Community that we missed and laughed until it hurt, talked for a while, listened to some music, then it was time for bed.
This morning we had 7am physicals. They weren't too bad. Then we had to make a trip to Target to get some personal items. The van rides with my Pod are always interesting and fun. Now I'm back, finally able to update you all, doing laundry, and hopefully going to go see Where The Wild Things Are in downtown Sacramento. Fingers crossed! I miss you all and hope everyone is doing well! I am doing groovy and gain more confidence everyday for myself and what lies ahead of me for this program. There are hard moments, of course, but I have amazing people around me to pull me out of whatever funk my brain is in (they of course don't know I might be in a funk but they still pull me out :o)). More to come!
peace&love,
mags
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Monday, October 12, 2009
IT'S ALMOST TIME!
I can't believe it! There is so much going on in my head right now! It feels like just yesterday I moved back to my home of Tallahassee after graduating from the University of Florida. When I found out I got into the AmeriCorps NCCC program I had about 5 months before leaving... what I thought was PLENTY of time to get ready: mentally and literally. Well, it definitely went by a lot faster than I could ever imagine. It's true that everyone around me told me time would fly by, but of course I wanted to enjoy every second with my loves and try to make time go slow... if that's even possible. The effort paid off (time didn't go any slower but I enjoyed it all so much). I had the most amazing summer with the greatest people I have ever met: from people I have known my whole life, to people I just met... you have all impacted my life in some way <3. You all are making this big change so much easier because I know you are rooting for me. I have learned so much about myself & others during this time at home and beginning to take that step out of my box. Thanks to you all for teaching me. It was an honor to learn from you.
I leave from Tallahassee at 5:30am, on Wednesday, October 14th, and head to Atlanta where I will have about a 2 hour layover. Then I will head to Denver where I will hopefully meet up with other AmeriCorps members and start the getting-to-know process. From Denver, it's on to Sacramento! I can't wait to meet everyone and feel apart of something so important and so big. It's time for me to practice what I preach about peace & love & helping. I know helping is what I am meant to do with my life, I just need a more specific goal. I will experience so much that will help me make a decision later on, but for now I want to help, learn, meet, and grow.
Everyone should know I will miss you so so much but that I will not be dropping off the face of the earth. Expect postcards, blog updates, emails, facebook things, photos, etc. etc. etc.!
It's not goodbye, just ta ta for now!
peace&love :o)
mags
I leave from Tallahassee at 5:30am, on Wednesday, October 14th, and head to Atlanta where I will have about a 2 hour layover. Then I will head to Denver where I will hopefully meet up with other AmeriCorps members and start the getting-to-know process. From Denver, it's on to Sacramento! I can't wait to meet everyone and feel apart of something so important and so big. It's time for me to practice what I preach about peace & love & helping. I know helping is what I am meant to do with my life, I just need a more specific goal. I will experience so much that will help me make a decision later on, but for now I want to help, learn, meet, and grow.
Everyone should know I will miss you so so much but that I will not be dropping off the face of the earth. Expect postcards, blog updates, emails, facebook things, photos, etc. etc. etc.!
It's not goodbye, just ta ta for now!
peace&love :o)
mags
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