Heat. We were back to the heat. When we had found out that our last project would be working in the Sierra Nevada at a Quaker Outdoor Education Camp (don’t worry I will explain), I felt an immense relief. Surely, in Nevada City, at the base of a large mountain range, we would benefit from chillier weather. This was not… Read more →
The Pacific Northwest = Love? Back when I first started this blog I wrote an article titled “Love Is A Bonus.” It was about how there are many different kinds of love and how we tend to put romantic love on a pedestal and expect it to make up for all other deficiencies in our life. I argued that you… Read more →
As promised, here I am giving you some of the rest of my AmeriCorps experience. To be honest, sitting down to write this was like pulling teeth. It’s like when I get behind on my journal, and the mere thought of back-writing causes me to be productive in nearly every other area of my life in an attempt to avoid… Read more →
I never thought I’d say this, but I miss Chicago winters. I miss the snow and biting wind, bundling up and scraping the ice off your car in the morning. I miss the possibility of snow days and the rare Polar Vortex. I’ve only ever lived in cold Midwestern climates, from Chicago to St. Louis, and AmeriCorps has now driven… Read more →
As the Women’s Marches continue around the world following Trump’s inauguration, and I lament the fact that I cannot join my fellow feminists, I have to remind myself that I am doing good in my own way here in Coachella. I say Coachella, and people think of white girls in flower crowns and culturally appropriating garb. Every year during the… Read more →
This week we had the reveal for our next AmeriCorps spike, and on January 11 we will be moving down to Indio, California, a suburb of Palm Springs located just outside Joshua Tree National Park. During the day, we will be working with an organization similar to Habitat for Humanity that builds houses for low-income families, and at night we… Read more →
Diction is important when it comes to serving others. It can be the difference between patronizing the people you are serving and empowering them. I had learned this prior to joining, but AmeriCorps NCCC helped me to understand the practical applications of this lesson. When my team, Green 7, arrived in Baton Rouge to provide flood disaster relief, we were… Read more →
Imagine driving from Northern California to Louisiana. Imagine driving 10 hours a day for five days. Now imagine you have to do it packed into one van like sardines with 11 other people. If there is a hell on Earth, I suppose it would be something like the experience I just described. It’s just downright uncomfortable. I arrived in Baton… Read more →
Before coming to AmeriCorps, I had never been to California for any length of time. However, pretty much all I had seen up until a week ago was campus and the Walmart next to campus. So when they announced that our “mini spike” was in San Luis Obispo, a small town on the coast of central California, I was beyond… Read more →
After waiting patiently, or not so patiently, for 6 months to find out my first project location, I finally have some answers. Not all the answers, because that just wouldn’t be the AmeriCorps way. There’s always got to be a little room for ambiguity. Instead of just telling us, most of the AmeriCorps teams had a cute reveal, not unlike… Read more →