survive AmeriCorps

Oh I am so excited and nervous about this. I have decided to take the plunge and I feel that this program will suit me. I feel old, though. A friend of mine who had done AmeriCorps in Philadelphia said not to worry, that there were people of all ages. Next week I go to Indianopolis to do the PSO. Woo hoo.

I am joining as a Vista member for the Des Moines Campus Compact. I hope to finish this and move on to Grad School. I start in November. I feel much better about this then I did 2 years ago. Wish all the luck, please.

I have 6 months left on my contract! I work in a middle school as a mentor/ tutor and it will definitely be an experience I won’t forget!

It was a great thing. I feel very accomplished. As far as I know, it has helped significantly with job and college applications. There were days that I hated the Corps and wanted to quit. But I wouldn’t trade my experiences there for anything.

It makes me sad to give up on this but I just don’t see it in my future anymore.

Well, here I am, halfway through my second round. I’m doing very very well so far. This was definitely a great decision on my part, a blessing from God that He led me into this.
I am working really hard and meeting so many people. I mean like ten new people a week. I’m getting leadership opportunities, cooking and serving skills, sports techniques, teamwork dynamics, subordinate positions, social interaction, time and money management, faith and religion-centered questions, space preservation and independent living…... I could go on and on. I feel like I’ve lived years in these past three months.
It’s been good so far.

I got accepted into Habitat for Humanity and then took this last weekend to go down there and talk to the main guy and ask what paper work I would have to do for it. He wasn’t there but there were two volunteers there who tried to help me. They weren’t very helpful and in the end made me feel like that maybe this particular program would not suit me. It would have been with the ReStore and I have already worked retail before.

The Red Cross Grant Writing position fell through and I don’t if calling the recruitment guy and telling him that I changed my mind after accepting the job would mean barring me from doing any other Americorps programs. I just have to wait and see unless anyone else has any comments.

I just joined as a VISTA position with Habitat for Humanity in Iowa. I am excited but a little nervous. Out of all the places that interviewed me, they seemed the most organized. I am a little nervous about the pay, but not so much because I will only be making $50 less a paycheck then what I make now. I wish I had done it earlier but as least I can look forward to returning to Iowa.

I’m nearing the end of my second term of service with AmeriCorps and I’m all signed up for a 3rd!

I almost got myself killed multiple times during my first experience on a chainsaw crew in the mojave desert. And I mean, dumb ways to die like throwing up from heat exhaustion and falling down/off of mountains, running into coyotes.

And it was fucking amazing!

But I decided to do something with flushing toilets, so I joined a City Year site on the other side of the country. “If you want to hear people bitch for a year, join Shitty Year”.

It’s The program AmeriCorps was modeled after, and it’s a fucking mess… but I’ve met amazing people, and if I’m ready to do it again… (I’ve signed up for NCCC, more like the chainsaw crew experience hopefully)

Basically, you learn a lot about yourself, you meet people from all over (I’ve worked with pregnant 17 year olds, 40 year old native americans fresh outta meth rehab) and you’ll walk away with way greater understanding and appreciation of the part of America that will have to live on foodstamps and off of medical insurance FOREVER instead of the 3 months or 3 years you CHOOSE to serve.

DO IT… pussy… ;)

I did this a few years ago. It was the most disorganized experience of my life. Although I wasn’t impressed with it at the time, in retrospect I can see that I learned a lot from the program and met some pretty cool people.