Tuesday, August 25, 2015

What About Everything

What About Everything

Well I have already failed at writing this blog.  It's day two of training and I've got one post so far.  I didn't realize how hard it was to write these and am now giving credit to the blog authors I've read in the past.

What about everything?  The name of the blog is from the Carbon Leaf song What About Everything.  I encourage everyone to go listen to this song, especially if they need a little optimism in their life.  I also encourage everyone to become a full fledged Carbon Leaf groupie because I think they are a fantastic band.  I will wait here while you do the above...

So what about everything?  When you start to think about everything, your possibilities of opportunity become endless.  This year I hope to learn and seek out opportunities more frequently.  I'm not talking about drastic let's go jump out of an airplane opportunity, but be more willing to join local groups and getting more involved in the surrounding community.  I want to experience everything Southern California has to offer, especially service sites in the area and the outdoors.


On day two of training the possibilities still seem endless and our team is going strong!  We have survived the awkwardness of first introductions and a scavenger hunt around Philadelphia.  We now have the daunting task of writing and talking about our faith journey for five to ten minutes.  We all know that if my talk doesn't last for five minutes I can ramble about anything, let's just hope it's appropriate and at least slightly not awkward.


Monday, August 17, 2015

T-minus 7 Days

It's t-minus 7 days until I leave for my California adVENTURA!

A little background on what is going on and how it started:
On Monday, August 24th I leave the Chapel Hill/Durham/Cary area to do 10 months of service with an organization called the Augustinian Volunteers (AV) in Ventura, California.  It all started when a coworker talked to me about her experience with a different organization.  This conversation and a persistent question of "What is my next step??" motivated me to look at my options.  I started doing research and came across a lot of organizations that had great opportunities.  I found the Augustinian Volunteers and felt their mission of service through educational, social and health programs is something I fully believe in and would want to be a part of.

After interviews and a lot of nervous waiting I found out I would be moving to Ventura, California and my site placement would be Help of Ojai in Ojai, California.  For the fall semester I will be working as a caseworker for chronically homeless people and helping organize the cities Thanksgiving and Christmas baskets.

To start the term off I will fly to Philadelphia for training and meet the other volunteers, including my brand new roommates!  From Philadelphia we will fly to California and start at our sites.  I will have a week at home for Christmas (put me on your schedule now!) and a week in Philadelphia for more training.  At the end of the spring semester we will all meet one last time in Philadelphia.

I am so lucky to have the support of family, friends and coworkers who have encouraged and pushed me to go on this adVENTURA.  I look forward to sharing my 10 months with you and will try to keep blog posts short and sweet!