I have arrived. As with most things in my life, this happened less than smoothly. Because of high winds, we were delayed getting into Los Angeles and consequently missed our connection to Sacramento. The next flight wasn’t for another 3.5 hours, but luckily there were four other AmeriCorps members on my flight so it was a good opportunity for bonding. Bonding is always easy in these situations, you know, misery loves company and all that.
However, this meant that we got to our campus in McClellan, CA, a suburb of Sacramento, after all the introductory events had already happened. Everyone had their schedules, IDs, and sleeping bags already. AmeriCorps in general is a program where you just have to jump in to situations with little information, and to miss what little information they had given everyone else was anxiety-inducing. For the next few days I was playing catch up, trying to piece together what I’d missed. Luckily, I was walking into it with my airport friends, and most importantly someone to sit with at the first dinner before I met my team.
When I first heard I was assigned to the Sacramento campus, I had looked up the campus and found out it was on an old Air Force Base. I’d heard in the AmeriCorps community that Sacramento had the worst accommodations, but I have not found this to be true at all. I share a room with one other person, who is fabulously down-to-earth by the way, and we have two closets and a sink to ourselves. We share a bathroom with another room. Showering is a bit of struggle after morning workouts, but we make it work.
The only truly subpar thing about the campus is the fact that wifi here is basically nonexistent. You can get about five minutes in one of the common rooms before you get booted off (I uploaded this from a nearby café). This means that I can’t watch any of my TV shows or check any of my usual websites. At first I was kind of devastated, being someone who relies on the Internet so much for my daily entertainment. But then I figured that it might actually be exactly what I need. Less time getting wrapped up in the drama of my favorite characters and more time trying to solve my own problems, namely what the hell I’m doing with my life. Though, I do hope I can get some Internet when it comes time to apply to jobs.
I also wasn’t expecting the rules to be as strict on campus as they are. I guess I should have known by the fact that AmeriCorps is designed from a military model. Everyday we have to wear our long or short sleeve AmeriCorps shirts with canvas army-grade pants or shorts and combat boots. Socks, ponytails, and headbands must be of a neutral color. Girls aren’t to paint their nails or wear jewelry, and all hair must be dyed a natural color. However, I kind of like the strictness. After a summer spent having almost too much freedom and hence boredom, I welcome the feeling of purpose I have and the routine. I’m starting to wonder if I might actually have enjoyed the military. I thrive when there are clear benchmarks to meet, because I will always meet them. Morning workouts are going to take some getting used to though. We have 6am workouts four times a week to make sure that we’re ready for strenuous projects like trail building or firefighting. I was proud though that on our baseline physical testing I did well enough that I would have passed the army’s physical requirements.
We deploy on November 4th, and we still don’t know where we’re going to be sent. But the Campus Director says that there is a high likelihood that we will be sent to the south to help with cleanup after the Louisiana floods and Hurricane Matthew. I’m actually hoping we do get sent on a disaster clean-up project. It’s long hours and hard days of mucking and gutting houses, but I’m ready for my body to work harder than my mind for once. I’ve spent the last 16 years doing school work, and I’m ready to actually put some of what I’ve learned to use.
AmeriCorps definitely marketed itself as a program for college graduates, but I have found that the campus is mostly kids right out of high school. For the most part, I don’t notice the 4 year age difference, but there are definitely some punks. There are those kids who just have a sarcastic comment about everything during trainings, but I genuinely like everyone on my team. I’ve bonded with the older kids more for obvious reasons, but I’ve found myself enjoying being in a mentor role to the younger kids.
I didn’t think I’d enjoy the program this much, but I’m really feeling this sense of greater purpose on campus. It actually has me thinking and reevaluating what I want to do career-wise. I love being surrounded by people who care about the world and making it better. These people question the systems that bind our society and are constantly working to change them. I’m thinking that this feeling that what you’re doing is important is going to be addictive. Perhaps, nonprofit work is after all what I was meant to do. But I mean I do change my mind every few days, so I’ll keep ya posted. Until next time.