Hello all!
Another week has successfully gone by, I honestly can't believe how fast this entire year with Americorps is going. We just figured out yesterday that we are about 4 months from graduation. 4 months!! I'm not sure where the first 6 months went, but I can't believe everything's moving so fast. I guess that's what happens when you're constantly busy, changing things up, and having fun!
So this week was a little more structured, which is relieving. But it's still laidback enough that as long as you get certain things done, there's time to go just hang out with residents. The downer is that we worked approximately 12 hour days...so we pretty much put in 60 hours, and that's not counting whatever additional hours we work on the weekends. Don't get me wrong, the work is not difficult at all, but just being "on" all the time is exhausting. I think our team leader Steve is going to work to get those cut back down a little. We need 1700 total hours to graduate, but we're all way ahead of the game so there's no need to torture ourselves working so much!!
As I get more and more familiar with the staff and residents, I get more comfortable as well, and the days get easier. I get more used to the diagnoses and my patience has definitely improved. Sometimes, peole are just having a bad day, and they may snap at you, but it's nothing to take personal. I also really like when I get residents involved in whatever activity I'm running at the time. There's certain residents that are toughies and sort of have a bad attitude about things, but when you get them interested in something it's really rewarding. Getting people to participate who usually choose not to is great!
My team leader and team continue to be awesome. We're still doing Insanity, and it is still kicking my ass, but I like to think that I'm getting in better shape :) If nothing else, it's definitely making me sweat! We all went to watch the Hunger Games movie that came out on Friday too, so that was a fun time. I continue to have such a good feeling about this round, I just know it's going to be great!!
On another note, 12 more days until I get to visit home! woooohoo! can't wait to see everyone! :)
xoxo
abby
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Sunday, March 18, 2012
Week 1 of Round 3 complete!
Hello...!
It's been quite an interesting week...and by interesting I mean: fun, scary, boring, exciting, funny, weird, uncomfortable. All in all, I think it went well. We arrived to Marycrest (only 9 miles from campus) Monday morning. We got our stuff settled into our "house", which is really an old abandoned office building on the Marycrest property. Everyone has their own room except Caroline and I share. I really don't mind at all though...it's like having a sleepover with one of your best friends every night! :) Anyways, after we got settled in we went and had lunch in the cafeteria in the Serenity building. There are two parts of Marycrest Assisted Living: the Serenity building is for senior citizens, and the Harmony building is for adults with disabilities or traumatic brain injuries (TBI's). Monday afternoon they didnt have anything for us planned except for "teambuilding" so Steve (my new TL!) took us to Jumpstreet! Which is a place filled with rows and rows of big trampolines! It was soooooo much fun! Then we went out for ice cream..Monday was a fantastic day.
On Tuesday we started in with our orientation. It was long, but necessary. We learned the different things that they wanted us to work on. We're going to develop 3 internship positions for Marycrest, which is pretty neat. They also talked to us about common diagnoses for the residents who live at Marycrest. They range from diabetes, to schizophrenia, to dementia, to epilepsy. They talked about how important it was for us to be aware of the disabilities and things, but they also challenged us to get past those things so we could really get to know the person. Wednesdays was still orientation stuff, and by Thursday afternoon they had us "out on the floor". We didn't have a specific schedule, but it was more just interacting with residents and just getting to know them. It was a little uncomfortable, but really exciting once we started getting to know the residents. They're a lot of fun! Each on of them is so interesting and has such good stories, it's all about taking the time to listen to the stories. Sometimes it takes a lot of patience..many of the Harmony residents are hard to understand, especially if they've had a TBI or stroke...there is even one man who is mentally brilliant, but is not so brilliant physically. He communicates with a computer that he types on (very very verrrry slowly) and then it speaks for him! This project is definitely about what we make of it. I feel extremely lucky that I have an AMAZING team leader this round. On Friday morning he started playing hte piano while we all sang, we had residents coming out of their rooms and out singing with us and one lady was even dancing!! I think as long as we have a good attitude and keep remembering to have fun, this project will be wonderful!
Now for the scary part of my week. On Friday evening Caroline and I were driving back from Walmart..and as we're cruising along about 3 or 4 blocks to go left in our trip we get hit from behind by a car in a high speed car chase!! He rammed into us and kept going, and then like 8 cops flew by him and continued chasing him. Luckily, one of the cops turned around for us. Caroline and I started freaking out, I called Steve (TL), and he came and helped us with everything we had to fill out. Besides the police report, we also have to fill out lots of other stuff because it's a government vehicle. It was EXTREMELY scary when it happened, but now that it's over and everything was fine we thinks its sorta neat that we were involved in a "high speed car chase"! hahahaha
So, there's still a few things on the weekends that Marycrest has requested help with. We're not techincally required to do it all but a few extra hours each weekend is appreciated. It kind of stinks cuz you totally feel bad if you don't go, but that's ok. Today (Sunday) we went and played bingo with them for awhile, it's nothing too hard. Some of my other teammates helped out yesterday with serving breakfast, lunch, and helped out with the St. Patty's day party. But, I went to downtown Denver to celebrate the holiday! Talk about crazy! Denver really goes all out for it. They have a HUGE parade. Supposedly it's the biggest St. Patty's parade west of the mississippi river. I thought that was pretty cool. The bars had lots of specials, and it was BEAUTIFUL outside. I'm glad I got to experience it all!
This week, things are going to be a little more structured. For example, tomorrow I am scheduled to work on the "volunteer programming" all day, but of course I can participate in resident activities as well. Tuesday I am scheduled to work with maintenance, which might mean painting, or working on a zen garden, or whatever. Wednesday I think I'm in charge of doing all the activities for the residents. With that being said, there's still going to be weird, awkward down time that you really don't know what to do with yourself. But really all you have to do is find a resident sitting somewhere and just chat with them. Or ask a staff if they need help with something. It's really laidback, and I really like it! Once again, I feel like my TL is who really helps me get motivated about this project. It's definitely stuff I'm interested in anyways, but he helps out a lot too. The team has a couple of downers on it, but every team does honestly. So you just learn to roll with it! :)
Oh yea, another thing...Steve had us start on Insanity this week! It's a workout video that is INSANE. It literally kicks our asses every night. Of course it's not mandatory, but Caroline and I have been doing it each night with him anyways because we've been talking about needing to get in shape! Aaaaand Steve is going to start getting up early and making either fruit or vegetables smoothies for us each morning. I'm getting so healthy (minus my candy addiction). Hopefully I can keep up with a semi-healthy lifestyle from now on...we'll see!
Well I think that can be the end of my rambling. We dont have WiFi in our housing, so Mcdonald's is the closest place to get it. I'll try hard to keep posting at least once a week though!! Hope all is well for everyone at home.
xoxo
Abby :)
It's been quite an interesting week...and by interesting I mean: fun, scary, boring, exciting, funny, weird, uncomfortable. All in all, I think it went well. We arrived to Marycrest (only 9 miles from campus) Monday morning. We got our stuff settled into our "house", which is really an old abandoned office building on the Marycrest property. Everyone has their own room except Caroline and I share. I really don't mind at all though...it's like having a sleepover with one of your best friends every night! :) Anyways, after we got settled in we went and had lunch in the cafeteria in the Serenity building. There are two parts of Marycrest Assisted Living: the Serenity building is for senior citizens, and the Harmony building is for adults with disabilities or traumatic brain injuries (TBI's). Monday afternoon they didnt have anything for us planned except for "teambuilding" so Steve (my new TL!) took us to Jumpstreet! Which is a place filled with rows and rows of big trampolines! It was soooooo much fun! Then we went out for ice cream..Monday was a fantastic day.
On Tuesday we started in with our orientation. It was long, but necessary. We learned the different things that they wanted us to work on. We're going to develop 3 internship positions for Marycrest, which is pretty neat. They also talked to us about common diagnoses for the residents who live at Marycrest. They range from diabetes, to schizophrenia, to dementia, to epilepsy. They talked about how important it was for us to be aware of the disabilities and things, but they also challenged us to get past those things so we could really get to know the person. Wednesdays was still orientation stuff, and by Thursday afternoon they had us "out on the floor". We didn't have a specific schedule, but it was more just interacting with residents and just getting to know them. It was a little uncomfortable, but really exciting once we started getting to know the residents. They're a lot of fun! Each on of them is so interesting and has such good stories, it's all about taking the time to listen to the stories. Sometimes it takes a lot of patience..many of the Harmony residents are hard to understand, especially if they've had a TBI or stroke...there is even one man who is mentally brilliant, but is not so brilliant physically. He communicates with a computer that he types on (very very verrrry slowly) and then it speaks for him! This project is definitely about what we make of it. I feel extremely lucky that I have an AMAZING team leader this round. On Friday morning he started playing hte piano while we all sang, we had residents coming out of their rooms and out singing with us and one lady was even dancing!! I think as long as we have a good attitude and keep remembering to have fun, this project will be wonderful!
Now for the scary part of my week. On Friday evening Caroline and I were driving back from Walmart..and as we're cruising along about 3 or 4 blocks to go left in our trip we get hit from behind by a car in a high speed car chase!! He rammed into us and kept going, and then like 8 cops flew by him and continued chasing him. Luckily, one of the cops turned around for us. Caroline and I started freaking out, I called Steve (TL), and he came and helped us with everything we had to fill out. Besides the police report, we also have to fill out lots of other stuff because it's a government vehicle. It was EXTREMELY scary when it happened, but now that it's over and everything was fine we thinks its sorta neat that we were involved in a "high speed car chase"! hahahaha
So, there's still a few things on the weekends that Marycrest has requested help with. We're not techincally required to do it all but a few extra hours each weekend is appreciated. It kind of stinks cuz you totally feel bad if you don't go, but that's ok. Today (Sunday) we went and played bingo with them for awhile, it's nothing too hard. Some of my other teammates helped out yesterday with serving breakfast, lunch, and helped out with the St. Patty's day party. But, I went to downtown Denver to celebrate the holiday! Talk about crazy! Denver really goes all out for it. They have a HUGE parade. Supposedly it's the biggest St. Patty's parade west of the mississippi river. I thought that was pretty cool. The bars had lots of specials, and it was BEAUTIFUL outside. I'm glad I got to experience it all!
This week, things are going to be a little more structured. For example, tomorrow I am scheduled to work on the "volunteer programming" all day, but of course I can participate in resident activities as well. Tuesday I am scheduled to work with maintenance, which might mean painting, or working on a zen garden, or whatever. Wednesday I think I'm in charge of doing all the activities for the residents. With that being said, there's still going to be weird, awkward down time that you really don't know what to do with yourself. But really all you have to do is find a resident sitting somewhere and just chat with them. Or ask a staff if they need help with something. It's really laidback, and I really like it! Once again, I feel like my TL is who really helps me get motivated about this project. It's definitely stuff I'm interested in anyways, but he helps out a lot too. The team has a couple of downers on it, but every team does honestly. So you just learn to roll with it! :)
Oh yea, another thing...Steve had us start on Insanity this week! It's a workout video that is INSANE. It literally kicks our asses every night. Of course it's not mandatory, but Caroline and I have been doing it each night with him anyways because we've been talking about needing to get in shape! Aaaaand Steve is going to start getting up early and making either fruit or vegetables smoothies for us each morning. I'm getting so healthy (minus my candy addiction). Hopefully I can keep up with a semi-healthy lifestyle from now on...we'll see!
Well I think that can be the end of my rambling. We dont have WiFi in our housing, so Mcdonald's is the closest place to get it. I'll try hard to keep posting at least once a week though!! Hope all is well for everyone at home.
xoxo
Abby :)
Sunday, March 11, 2012
Shuffle round!!
Hey all!
So we just finished up our "transition week"---which is the week in between rounds that we take care of tying up the loose ends from the previous round, and prepare for the next round. This upcoming 3rd round is "shuffle round", which means that we all get shuffled around with new teams and new team leaders. I didn't think it was going to bother me much, because I was kind of ready for some new faces. But today, as people were packing and cleaning their rooms, my original team (Earth 3)..somehow kept ending up together in one room. We are all so sad to leave each other! Luckily, it will make reuniting with each other for 4th round that much better. I'm also really excited about my new team leader! He is just sooo chill and laid back, he doesn't get too worried about things. I think he's going to be great to work with.
The past week was really nice, I got to spend time with my two closest friends who are not on my team...my roomate Riley and the girl across the hall Jess. The three of us are pretty much always together when we are able to be. I also really enjoyed seeing some other familiar faces that I hadn't seen in two months!! Of course there was the typical drama going around about all of the juicy stuff that happened over round 2, but that just adds to the fun :) And of course, myself and the other members of Earth 3 all kept managing to gravitate towards and find each other..it's so weird to explain, but when you spend so long with only those handful of people you just get so used to it! So anytime I couldn't find anyone or was bored I would just go in search of Caroline, or Katy, or Jeremiah..just anyone from Earth 3 really. It's pretty ironic how we talk about needing a break from each other, but end up going back to them anyways. What a cute little Amerifamily :)
So I got to thinking about all the nifty little skills I've learned while I've been here. Not the traditional things that you learn in Americorps like leadership, teambuilding, tool safety, yadda yadda..these are the cool things.
1. crocheting
2. hula hooping (like tricks and stuff!)
3. survival bracelets
4. FANCY friendship bracelets
5. belaying indoor rock climbers
6. cup stacking
7. chinese jump rope
I'm sure there's other things too..but that's a good start. I'm becoming such a well-rounded person here, haha. But really, it's so neat all the things you learn just by being around so many people!! I'm really starting to appreciate the diversity.....because even if we're all not "friends" with each other, we definitely have a kind of "in it together" attitude about everything, and that really gives you a sense of belonging.
Well tomorrow, I'm getting up bright and early for spike travel. But for me, that just means my team is traveling 9 miles down the road! The Marycrest Assisted Living Center is housing us though, so we won't be so isolated in our dorms!! I'm excited to see what this new adventure brings, and just eager to gain even more experiences :)
Abby
So we just finished up our "transition week"---which is the week in between rounds that we take care of tying up the loose ends from the previous round, and prepare for the next round. This upcoming 3rd round is "shuffle round", which means that we all get shuffled around with new teams and new team leaders. I didn't think it was going to bother me much, because I was kind of ready for some new faces. But today, as people were packing and cleaning their rooms, my original team (Earth 3)..somehow kept ending up together in one room. We are all so sad to leave each other! Luckily, it will make reuniting with each other for 4th round that much better. I'm also really excited about my new team leader! He is just sooo chill and laid back, he doesn't get too worried about things. I think he's going to be great to work with.
The past week was really nice, I got to spend time with my two closest friends who are not on my team...my roomate Riley and the girl across the hall Jess. The three of us are pretty much always together when we are able to be. I also really enjoyed seeing some other familiar faces that I hadn't seen in two months!! Of course there was the typical drama going around about all of the juicy stuff that happened over round 2, but that just adds to the fun :) And of course, myself and the other members of Earth 3 all kept managing to gravitate towards and find each other..it's so weird to explain, but when you spend so long with only those handful of people you just get so used to it! So anytime I couldn't find anyone or was bored I would just go in search of Caroline, or Katy, or Jeremiah..just anyone from Earth 3 really. It's pretty ironic how we talk about needing a break from each other, but end up going back to them anyways. What a cute little Amerifamily :)
So I got to thinking about all the nifty little skills I've learned while I've been here. Not the traditional things that you learn in Americorps like leadership, teambuilding, tool safety, yadda yadda..these are the cool things.
1. crocheting
2. hula hooping (like tricks and stuff!)
3. survival bracelets
4. FANCY friendship bracelets
5. belaying indoor rock climbers
6. cup stacking
7. chinese jump rope
I'm sure there's other things too..but that's a good start. I'm becoming such a well-rounded person here, haha. But really, it's so neat all the things you learn just by being around so many people!! I'm really starting to appreciate the diversity.....because even if we're all not "friends" with each other, we definitely have a kind of "in it together" attitude about everything, and that really gives you a sense of belonging.
Well tomorrow, I'm getting up bright and early for spike travel. But for me, that just means my team is traveling 9 miles down the road! The Marycrest Assisted Living Center is housing us though, so we won't be so isolated in our dorms!! I'm excited to see what this new adventure brings, and just eager to gain even more experiences :)
Abby
Friday, March 2, 2012
Round 2 complete!
Well, I did it. I lived at a Boys and Girls Club in Farmington, New Mexico for 2 months. Every once in awhile I have a really strange feeling and I'll catch myself thinking, "what in the hell am I doing?! I live, work, play, eat, do EVERYTHING with 9 random people from across the country. Right now I'm in a random town in New Mexico scraping scotch tape off of windows, or running around with a hula hoop as a car, or begging some kids to get down from the tree, or knocking on a random apartment to survey a 90 year old woman, or having a jump rope contest with a bunch of 7 year old girls, or trying to make a 14 year old boy understand why he has to follow the rules too..... How did my life end up here?" I've been having these thoughts ever since training the first month back in Denver, I definitely had them in Joplin, and of course I've had them here. It really makes me stop and think.
I'll tell you what, it's pretty awesome though.
It sounds cliche, but I'm really starting to understand the idea that life is made up of a bunch of experiences and different interactions with new people. It's a neat thing to be aware of, because then you can really start to appreciate each thing you do. In general, this is a really sad town. The Native American, Hispanic, and really all the populations are living in EXTREME poverty here..there is just sad story after sad story. In fact, on my last day at The Club I was proofreading a 5th grader's composition about what she learned from an assembly at school. The assembly was about meth use and all the negative affects it has. In the composition, the girl pretty much tells her story about how her dad used meth, began beating up her mom, screamed at them, basically went crazy. She used exact quotes of things that he said and everything...then I started thinking about her and her little sister who is only 7 but has some SEVERE problems. I can only imagine what all went on in that household. These are the types of things that you hear stories about, but when you have a personal connection with the children invovled and you can put faces with it, the story becomes so much more real. Unfortunately, this is the reality for the majority of the kids that I got the honor to meet while I was here. I can only hope that I made some sort of difference in their lives.
So my point is that inspite of the bad circumstances here, I've met some amazing people as well. I got the chance to learn about so much while I was here, it's weird to think about how 2 months before this I was uncomfortable being the minority in a room full of Hispanic and Navajo kids. And I can say the same thing about being in Joplin. The people that I met there are just as incredible. It makes me so happy to know that there are such good people all over the country. I think that it happens too often that people are SO hesitant to trust people or are SO paranoid about something bad happening that they start to believe that in general, people are out to get them. or that in general, people are bad. I am not saying that we should be careless, because of course bad things happen. But when we just assume people are bad or deceiving and we stop putting effort into trying to get to know people, we deprive ourselves of all those wonderful people out there. It's like we don't maximize the potential of our lives. Ok sorry, those are just my deep thoughts of the day/past 2 months.
Anyways....we leave tomorrow morning. Early. It's so weird to be leaving, we're so comfortable here. We thought we'd get to see the kids to say goodbye today, but they had a snow day and the club closed too. So we were pretty upset about that. There were definitely a lot of kids that didn't even know we were leaving. On another note, I can't wait to be back in Denver!! It's sooooo fun to be reunited with all of the other teams again. The campus is just buzzing with news and gossip during transitions weeks..and of course lots of partying. Everyone just gets so pumped to come back!! I also am excited for the next project at the assisted living center in Denver! I think it will be a lot fun. I'm a little nervous about the new team but I'll actually be with 3 of my teammates from this team anyways..so thats pretty neat.
So...March 6th marks the halfway point of the entire Americorps program. So basically, I've made it halfway. And looking back, it's sort of just like a huge blurr! I cannot wait to see what the second half brings!!! :)
xoxo
Abby
I'll tell you what, it's pretty awesome though.
It sounds cliche, but I'm really starting to understand the idea that life is made up of a bunch of experiences and different interactions with new people. It's a neat thing to be aware of, because then you can really start to appreciate each thing you do. In general, this is a really sad town. The Native American, Hispanic, and really all the populations are living in EXTREME poverty here..there is just sad story after sad story. In fact, on my last day at The Club I was proofreading a 5th grader's composition about what she learned from an assembly at school. The assembly was about meth use and all the negative affects it has. In the composition, the girl pretty much tells her story about how her dad used meth, began beating up her mom, screamed at them, basically went crazy. She used exact quotes of things that he said and everything...then I started thinking about her and her little sister who is only 7 but has some SEVERE problems. I can only imagine what all went on in that household. These are the types of things that you hear stories about, but when you have a personal connection with the children invovled and you can put faces with it, the story becomes so much more real. Unfortunately, this is the reality for the majority of the kids that I got the honor to meet while I was here. I can only hope that I made some sort of difference in their lives.
So my point is that inspite of the bad circumstances here, I've met some amazing people as well. I got the chance to learn about so much while I was here, it's weird to think about how 2 months before this I was uncomfortable being the minority in a room full of Hispanic and Navajo kids. And I can say the same thing about being in Joplin. The people that I met there are just as incredible. It makes me so happy to know that there are such good people all over the country. I think that it happens too often that people are SO hesitant to trust people or are SO paranoid about something bad happening that they start to believe that in general, people are out to get them. or that in general, people are bad. I am not saying that we should be careless, because of course bad things happen. But when we just assume people are bad or deceiving and we stop putting effort into trying to get to know people, we deprive ourselves of all those wonderful people out there. It's like we don't maximize the potential of our lives. Ok sorry, those are just my deep thoughts of the day/past 2 months.
Anyways....we leave tomorrow morning. Early. It's so weird to be leaving, we're so comfortable here. We thought we'd get to see the kids to say goodbye today, but they had a snow day and the club closed too. So we were pretty upset about that. There were definitely a lot of kids that didn't even know we were leaving. On another note, I can't wait to be back in Denver!! It's sooooo fun to be reunited with all of the other teams again. The campus is just buzzing with news and gossip during transitions weeks..and of course lots of partying. Everyone just gets so pumped to come back!! I also am excited for the next project at the assisted living center in Denver! I think it will be a lot fun. I'm a little nervous about the new team but I'll actually be with 3 of my teammates from this team anyways..so thats pretty neat.
So...March 6th marks the halfway point of the entire Americorps program. So basically, I've made it halfway. And looking back, it's sort of just like a huge blurr! I cannot wait to see what the second half brings!!! :)
xoxo
Abby
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