The beginning of this journey

Hello everyone! It has taken me a while to figure out how best to keep in touch and communicate with those important people in my life that I don’t get to see everyday—but here it is, my new blog, All the Places I Call Home! (Fitting, isn’t it?)

As most of you know, I am in Seattle! I am loving the city itself. If is so different than any other city I’ve spent a good chunk of time in. Not quite as laid back as Portland, but definitely very green (both literally and in the environmentally friendly way too!) The people are socially conscious, involved and all sort of funky. When it rains, it is gray gray gray. But—you gotta believe me on this—it doesn’t rain (or I should say, hasn’t rained) as much as everyone gripes about! The sunny days are breathtakingly beautiful. I am literally surrounded by mountains and bodies of water. Everywhere I go, it seems like a postcard perfect picture.

My apartment is wonderful too. It definitely has character. It is 100 years old this year, my roommates and I are planning on throwing a centennial birthday party for it—we’re still making all the arrangements J I have a westward facing room, meaning I have a view of the city skyline, of the sunsets and of hilly seattle neighborhoods, it’s pretty perfect in my mind. Besides the absolutely horrible water pressure, and my squeakly closet door, which makes me dislike early morning just a bit more, I couldn’t be happier.

My AmeriCorps placement seems to be just right as well. I am currently serving with AmeriCorps for the year. I am on a team, which consists of 14 people, and we are all serving through the King County Housing Authority. Our ages range from 22 to 32, with most of us being on the younger side. Each AmeriCorps member on my team is located at a different site, and all of us do overlapping, yet quite distinct tasks. My site is at New Futures in the Windsor Heights Apartment Complex, located in SeaTac (about a 30 minute drive or 1 hour public transportation commute). My official title is “Youth Education Assistant,” sounds pretty snazzy doesn’t it? The title basically sums up what I do. I am the assistant to the Academic Coordinator, Ellie. She really values my ideas and input; this is such a blessing! Thus, she has given me a lot of responsibility, which is wonderful. It seems we both fundamentally believe in the power and beauty of art as a means of expression and empowerment for children, wooohooo!

Now onto the specifics. I work with the preschool program, Colorful Hands, which meets twice a week, and the After School Program (ASP) which has two age groups, 1^st-3^rd graders and 4^th-6^th graders. Each group meets alternating days Monday-Thursday. My weekly tasks include helping lead Colorful Hands, being a tutor (talbe group leader) in the afterschool program, planning the preschool lesson plans, organizing snack for both the preschool program and after school program, reflecting on the preschool goals, prepping snack, data entry, providing child care for ELL classes, offering ideas for ASP and other odds and ends. I totally love all the little things, even the data entry, I feel like all that I am doing is giviving me valuable insight into the world of nonprofits. I also am involved in meetings through the week, including our site staff meeting, meeting with my supervisor, Ellie, Academic Coordinator meetings with other New Future sites, and all staff meetings.

Onto the personal note. Though I have loved each day at New Futures, I really miss the reflection that past positions have offered. Working at the Center for Public Service was perhaps the best experience of my Gettysburg career, and there are so many more things I appreciate about it now that I am no longer working there. The specific emphasis on big picture social justice issues and the small details of how these play out and the time for personal reflection in both journals and with supervisors and coworkers, oh how I miss this! I didn’t realize how much reflection really kept me going! Reflection is so powerful for positive growth! The kids are challenging, and I feel I am slowly starting to develop relationships with them, it takes time, I need to continually remind myself this.

I could go on and on and on, but I want you to make it through this and come back to read more, so I’ll save more details for another time!

A couple more things. My church searching has gone well. God has been so faithful with providing me a means to go church hunting, and the support I’ve needed to take the first steps. I tried out a couple different churches and finally landed on one (made the decision last week)! Currently, I will be regularly attending Bethany Community Church which is in Green Lake, just north of where I am. I am so thankful to have found this church community, and I am excited to get more involved!

my roommate, Kate, and I at gasworks park!

I have also become a new yoga go-er. One of my roommates loves yoga. We found on this wonderful website: www.freshpickedseattle.com/freeattle a free yoga class and checked it out. I love it, and what it does to my body! I have also recently tried hot room yoga too!

More updates to come, hopefully a bit shorter and  more consistently!

Love to you all! I’d love to hear what you think of my new blog, my experience, and any questions you have!