And yet I afford it so much gravity when faced with change in extreme proportions.
When 2015 arrived, I arrived into it ready to serve myself up a huge heaping dose of change from all angles.
Expectations set ridiculously high, I did not embark upon the goals of the new year with the immaculate grace I'd envisioned. In fact, I spent the first 5 days sobbing uncontrollably every few hours in the midst of headache and fatigue.
What began as a 3 month experiment in gut healing for me had quickly bled into every other aspect of my life and in the past week, I have been uprooting my dietary, spiritual, psychological, and behavioral norms one by one.
This Journey has called for a new blog, which I will hopefully have a link up for soon.
In regards to that saga however, I will say this: I got a tattoo!
Now, AmeriCorps.
With so much going on in my personal growth, it has been a struggle to come back to being present with AmeriCorps work. With my emotions in a tornado the first week back, I felt weak, incapable, disenchanted, distracted and all-around just not with it.
The options for the future have been an overwhelming prospect lately and while still passionate about the matter, working directly in teaching or with kids may not be the next step for me.
That being said, headaches are gone, reality is being faced and after a team meeting, I'm back on the AmeriTrack.
It's always crazy to come back from break because we manage to find a ton of stuff to line ourselves up for during this time. Girls nights, Crab Feed, Bowling trips, selling more t-shirts, Valentines Day dinner and Open Mic nights are all on the horizon. But on top of those, is our big Rockin' Resource Fair!
For our Civic Engagement Project this year, the team chose to tackle a giant resource fair that rallies together not only local but national resources to provide insight into education, vocation, health and lifestyle options that youth may not be aware of. With the event on February 6th, we are busy cracking down on networking, promoting and getting our shit together all at the same time.
If it is successful, I think this could be the best project yet.
We are simultaneously ramping up to advertise for the actual Civic Engagement Camp in March, when we take 7th and 8th graders to the woods to learn how to be a part of their communities. Meghann informed us yesterday that the Presbyterian Church decided to donate $1,000 to the camp which put us at more than enough in terms of funding. I admit I was pretty pleased to hear that, since I'd been the one to go speak to them about the camp. Word power!
Open Gym keeps on keepin' on. Kerissa has done a great job at implementing group games and we're nixing some of the rules we never really understood to begin with (yes, kids are going to jump off the stage.)
Before the break, we finally had the first of our monthly book groups. The group consists of three kids and three adults including myself, but I may have convinced one more girl to join. My favorite trouble-maker has proven himself to be not only an avid but passionate reader in the group and it has been a ton of fun to see this other side of him. On Wednesday, we discussed the book from break and he had an incredible retention for detail. I didn't get to read the whole thing since it came in to the library after I'd left for Florida but I'm excited for our next pick: A Winter In Paradise. Its a true account of a couple that chose to live at Paradise Lodge in Ranier for a Winter.
In school, I'm trying to get back into the swing of math. Last week, I wracked my brain to recall what they learned before break while tackling the new subject of percentages, a subject I've actually been wanting to brush up on. Luckily it is all common core and Mrs. Shook continues to be perplexed so I don't feel too naive.
Finally, I've been developing my own list of things to accomplish ASAP. I've been lamenting how much of my surroundings I have not experienced. In the remainder of my time here, I Will:
-Get back to the Pass (although conditions have not been to great yet and I have to wait for my tattoo to heal)
-Go Snowshoing
-Go rock climb at the Olympia Rock Gym
-See the upper Oly National Forest
-Sled at Paradise
-Go fishing
-Get on some of those Islands
However, an additional goal is to get a nightly 8-9 hours of sleep and I am nearing that threshold for tonight.
Sweet Dreams, all.
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