Somewhere Along the Way

This was our last week of camp and I have to say it was a pretty great one. I requested to work with a couple of counselors that I knew were great to minimize any headaches along the way and to go out with a bang. Turns out, this was a fantastic choice. I can think of no other job where I am challenged so much each and every day. And no other job that makes me laugh and cry like this one. Like I said before, part of me thinks I could do this forever. I keep having this thought where I will go teach in New Orleans for two years, earn my certification in special education, and then apply to run a camp for people with special needs. The thought has crossed my mind a few times and I must admit that it's not a bad plan. Some where along the way, I have fallen in love with this work and with these amazing people. I can't quite pinpoint where or when, but I know I have NCCC to thank for that. Had it not been for my team's stint at Camp K, I don't think this is ever something I would have sought out on my own. And it has since become something I can't imagine my life without. So thanks NCCC.

I have also reaffirmed some other things about myself this week. It's no secret that I pride myself as being someone who is punctual and organized with one hell of a work ethic. Those who don't share those same qualities may make great friends, but I find them very challenging to work with as coworkers. When folks are late, lazy, and disorganized, it really tends to rub me the wrong way and this week is no exception. I realize that I have an incredibly low tolerance for people who (pardon my French) just don't have their shit together. It's something I know I need to work on. As a peer, these are behaviors I have no control over, but as a supervisor, these are things I can help people work on. That was something I always told my team, "These are life skills." And as much as they hated it, I like to think it helped them out at least a little bit. So in the midst of my frustration this week, I kept thinking, "I wish there was something I could do about this. I wish I could be some place where other people valued these things as much as I do." Then, for the first time in a long time, the thought "I could join the Army" crossed my mind. We all know I've been down that road before, but the more I think about it, the more I think I could do a really good job. I feel like I would have been okay at it at the ripe age of 22, but I feel like I know myself a heck of a lot better now than I did then.  I have a fairly solid idea of my leadership style and what works for me and what doesn't. I feel like I am going at helping people get the most out of their experience and helping them to develop the skills they want and/or need in order to help them be successful in their next step, no matter what that might me. I also feel like I am good at letting people know that I have their back and that I am willing to go to bat for them. So yeah, the thought is out there. I suppose after my torrid love affair with the military, the thought never actually left. But know I feel that it's out there in a good way and not just in a "I've wanted to do this since 10th grade and it didn't work out the way I planned but I don't know what else to do" kind of way. So I guess we'll see.

It's the End of the World as We Know It

This week was the first week without our AmeriCorps NCCC team. I spent the last two years of my life in NCCC and when I first found out that there would be a team at camp, my first thought was, "I can't get away." But after spending the last eight weeks with this team, with many of the members reminding me of my own team, and seeing them be challenged and changed in a way that only a project like this can do, I am going to miss them. It's also pretty weird to not be surrounded by grey shirts and cargo pants. For the first time in over two years, AmeriCorps NCCC isn't a part of my everyday life.  I kind of thought of them as my transition out of AmeriCorps and now that they're gone, I feel that my transition out of AmeriLife is just about complete. I wore a uniform for two years and have spent the last 10 weeks being able to at least pick out my own pants. Pretty soon, I'll be able to pick out all of my own clothes! What an adventure that will be. At the end of the day, I'll be able to part ways with my coworkers, spend the night at my own place, and see them the next day like a normal person. And as an added bonus, all of the traumas from last year now seem like a distant memory with just a few great people and another amazing team to remind me what good really came out of that second year. So thanks for the memories, Maple 7, and thanks for helping to aid in my own transition to Life After AmeriCorps. Good luck on your own!

Friends

Overall, this was a pretty fantastic week. I switched groups with the AmeriCorps NCCC Team Leader because it was their last week at camp and she was really interested in working with males and hadn't yet had the chance to do so. So I offered to switch. She ended up with the grumpy old man group and I ended up with one of my favorite groups thus far. It was just a fantastic group and a breath of fresh air after my funk the week before.

One of the highlights of the week was spending the weekend adventuring around Iowa and Wisconsin with a new friend from camp. I think she and I may be kindred spirits. Come to find out she was a student on Semester at Sea the semester after I first sailed. We have a similar sense of adventure and both love to travel so we thought exploring our local area during one of our last weekends here would hit the spot. In looking back on all of the places I've been, there is always at least one person that I am extremely grateful for, someone whose path I feel like I was meant to cross. She is one of those people. She is someone who is extremely thoughtful and works really hard to maintain the relationships in her life. All in all, I feel lucky to know her.

Back to the Dirty South

So today I was presented with some interesting and exciting news. I was accepted into Teach for America, with an offer to teach elementary school in New Orleans. For those of you who had been following along, my relationship with Teach for America has been an interesting one. After working with at-risk kids in Alaska and desperate to get back to New York, I applied and interviewed but only preferences a few cities, NYC being one of them. I'm pretty sure that my interviewers could smell my desperation and with a sub-par 5 minute lesson to boot, it's no wonder they rejected me outright. I don't blame them.

Then my first year of NCCC, I applied again. this time I was accepted and offered a position to teach in the Mississippi Delta. At that point in time, you had to rank every single one of their 50 plus locations, with the possibility that you could end up in the geographic location at the bottom of your list, which is exactly what happened to me. While it all sounded like a grand adventure, moving to rural Mississippi and teaching kids at some of the most high needs school in the nation, the thought of moving to said rural location made me want to cry. I tried to talk myself into it for months, going through the motions as if updating my resume and taking the required exams would somehow make want to actually move to rural Mississippi. Finally, in April, I had some real talk with myself and ultimately decided that if the thought of moving some place made me want to cry, it probably wasn't the best fit for me. Had I been 22 and just out of college, moving from Auburn to rural Mississippi would have been fine, but being 28, many years out of college, and having lived pretty recently in Manhattan, I knew it wasn't for me.  Had I accepted, I'd be well into my second year of teaching. It's weird to think about, but it's a decision I'm pretty happy with.

So I decided to go back for more and apply again. This time around, I was elated to be placed in Baltimore, Maryland. A handful of my friends from the year before moved to Baltimore and it was just a hop skip and a jump from other major cities on the east coast. I accepted the offer immediately and was all ready to go when I received an offer for Semester at Sea. Even my dad said I'd be nuts to turn it down and coming from a guy who rarely travels more than an 8 hour drive from Omaha, that's saying something. But I knew he was right. On one hand, I was excited to not be living out of a suitcase, to pick out my own clothes, and to not share my living space with 10 other people. But on the hand that is much more indicative of my wanderlust, Semester at Sea was willing to hire me again for perhaps the most amazing job I'd ever had. And they'd basically pay me to go to Asia and Africa. Like my dad said, I'd be nuts to turn it down. So I didn't. I applied for a deferral for Teach for America, but was rejected. Rejected but welcome to apply the next year. Again. If they only knew...

I wasn't actually 100% sure I was going to apply again, but I was 100% sure that I wanted to have a job waiting for me when I came back. I can't imagine attempting to schedule interviews and relying on payphones in a foreign country or paying out the nose for phone service while at sea. So sort of at the last minute, I decided to throw my hat in the ring again. The day before I had been rejected from the New York City Teaching Fellows, so I was psyching myself out, convinced I hadn't made the cut, so imagine my surprise when I was offered a position in a city that has been at the top of my list each time I applied. It will be interesting to move back to the South after evolving into the wanderlusting liberal that I've become since college, but 80% of Orleans parish voted for Obama so I think I'll be just fine. Welcome back to the dirty dirty.