It has been another beautiful weekend for me and the good news is I have tomorrow off too! And no, it isn't because they are predicting a 3% chance of snow here either. As I mentioned early on I get one day off a week and I actually had the opportunity to go to a workshop on financial literacy on Friday so my day was moved to tomorrow. The workshop was really helpful and I was actually attending to learn how to train people who can then tutor people about financial literacy. I ended up picking up alot of useful information for myself, covering a lot of information on home buying, creditcards, etc. I just got a new budget planner too so I'm all about that. I'm becoming more and more like my sister every day I think ;)
Work went really well this week and we are already starting to plan out the community meetings we will be holding for our needs analysis. This project is going to give me such great experience with building a nonprofit from the groundup. Gosh, I think everyone should transfer half way through their AmeriCorps service. With BGCA I got to see what it was like to be with a national organization that has a strong base, tons of community support, and a very large budget. Here I am with an organization that is just starting its grass roots, unknown to everyone around us, and a shoe string budget to work on to accomplish our goals. It seems like when I leave this I will be so much more equipt to deal in either situation.
Nooow for the story that will explain part of my title for today's blog. I described it to my sister as an awful/hilarious story. Ok, so I've been desparately needing to get my hair done, but I had just moved, I was broke, and I had no idea where would be a good place to go. I didn't want a recap of the traumatizing mullet I got as my first haircut in Indiana. Anyway, it got to the point where I NEEDED to get it done. It looked like I had one of those whitetrash wigs you buy for halloween on...So I found this place that was pretty reasonable and right by my house. The hair dresser, who I totally thought was gay, asked me what I needed done and I immediately pointed to the skidmark going down the center of my head. I briefly explained how I just moved here and hadn't had much time lately. Then came the most accidental insult I think I've ever been apart of..."OH, DID YOU JUST HAVE A BABY?"....ZIIING! Your hair is not only ugly but you look like you could have been 9 months pregnant recently. I obviously punched him in his feminine face and left. Kidding, but I did want to ask him if he was about to have a boy or girl with the watermelon he was smugglin under his floral button up shirt. The only good thing about this guy was that he gave me lots of tips of places to go while I'm in TX, mentioning lots of festivals and po-dunk towns that are really special. Obviously justI shook it off and decided I'd just go on some type of hunger strike before I got my hair touched up again. Anyway, he did a great job on my hair so maybe I'll seem less "new mommy" to the rest of the public ;)
Sadly, our slowpitch tourny got postponed this past Saturday from all the rain we got on Friday, and was moved to next weekend. I was so pumped to play but luckily we did get a scrimmage practice in today. I finally broke down and got some rubber cleats for this stuff.I have never played in rubber my entire life since we were bad asses in Iowa and played with metal in high school.Felt like it was icing on the cake that I have become strictly a slowpitch player;I've even got specific gear for it now. Anywho, we played another all men's team and they didn't have enough players so I went and played on their team. It is all pretty relaxed and I had a lot of fun. I've been playing lots of first base which I'm starting to get the hang of. I want to scream at all these sidearm throwin' men about the seams but then I remember how psycho I'd seem :) I guess our actual league games don't start for a nother couple weeks but that'll be something to do during the week.
Here is an update on those church fires I had blogged about early on. They finally arrested 2 men for the fires but I have provided a link with more detailed info...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35508254/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/
Also:
TYLER — Court records indicate one of the suspects arrested on an arson charge in the burning of churches in East Texas had assault rifles and books on demons and atheism in his home.
Investigators also say 19-year-old Jason Bourque left graffiti in the bathroom stall of a ranch store. The Dallas Morning News reports today that court documents say Bourque carved an upside-down cross topped by flames into the bathroom wall, along with the words “Little Hope was Arson.”
Little Hope Baptist Church was the first of 11 churches that were torched in what authorities believe was an arson spree.
Bourque and 21-year-old Daniel George McAllister were arrested and charged Sunday with a single felony arson charge.
Attorneys are not commenting publicly because of a gag order.
I guess that's all for now until someone casually asks me if I've recently had a sex change operation or if I'm a burn victim survivor sometime soon...
"A sense of humor is needed armor. Joy in one's heart and some laughter on one's lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life"~Hugh Sidey
☮ Ash
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Work Called On Account of Snowflakes...
Well, I thought I would get this last blog in before the world ended on account of snow in East Texas today...kidding, obviously, but I did get off work at around 11:30am today on account of snow beginning to fall. The excitement people have for this awful stuff down here is probably equivical to my excitment regarding a 73 degree day in February. I guess we can call our unnecessary excitement a draw at this point. I actually don't think Dianna will have us come in tomorrow with some of us having a commute every day and the difference in the time it takes for them to get the roads under control here. Man, talk about puttin' in less work to get yourself a snow day..
Well before the snow hit this past weekend was woooooonderfully nice. It was in the low 70's on Saturday and Casper and I found a great walking/running/biking path that winds through town to try out. I feel like this past weekend was the first time I've really felt like I was getting settled and comfortable here. I'm starting to figure out where everything is, making friends, and creating new opportunities for myself. I think when I look back at this experience if it has given me nothing else but the courage and ability to live and grow in a new place completely alone I will be satisfied. Nothing that I have ever encountered has forced me to be as okay with time alone with myself, to go outside of my comfort zone to create relationships, or actively tap into the community around me for entertainment.
I am really starting to make friends with my roommates even though they are all so different than me or where I come from. Same story with my co-workers. I think the closest I've come to people I'm used to being friends with are the people I've met on my slowpitch team. Speaking of, we have a tournament this weekend that I'm realllly excited about. It is a really fun group of people and we all seem to be pretty good. I'm going to have to try and contain some of this Wolter competitiveness or else all these new friends are going to this I'm a freak...
As far as work goes, it has been great having Dianna back in the office. It has taken a lot of the stress of trying to create things to do for everyone when I am new myself. It is very exciting to really start digging in to what we are going to be trying to accomplish with our organization. We are essentially running a needs analysis within 4 counties in East Texas and then developing our programming around this needs analysis. I was originally put in charge of the Bi-lingual/Multicultural Program Development (whata joke right? I'm not bi-lingual and I was raised and lived in the whitest places on earth) Well, since that lady that conned the system never came I am now in charge of her position as the Job Skills/Training Program Development which I think I can really do great things with. It is also a main aspect of the mission of our organization. The Almond Tree's mission is to help individuals and families to become self sufficient through assistance with transitional housing and job skill training. All of the other programs will work to aid in self sufficiency through different outlets like technology, disaster relief. etc. The beautiful thing is that this is giving us the opportunity to find out what the missing gaps are with assistance in these communities and create our programming accordingly. I'm rambling but the bottom line is I feel like I'm actually somewhere I feel like I can not only make an impact, but I also feel like the feelings I have now are why I thought I'd love PR in nonprofit in the first place. I feel like this experience has shown me both the ugly and beautiful sides of the motives of a nonprofit orgaization and the people who run them.
Once I save up some cash, which may take God knows how long, I want to start seeing Texas. If anyone has any suggestions of great places to visit leave comments. I'd love to hear them!
Ash
Well before the snow hit this past weekend was woooooonderfully nice. It was in the low 70's on Saturday and Casper and I found a great walking/running/biking path that winds through town to try out. I feel like this past weekend was the first time I've really felt like I was getting settled and comfortable here. I'm starting to figure out where everything is, making friends, and creating new opportunities for myself. I think when I look back at this experience if it has given me nothing else but the courage and ability to live and grow in a new place completely alone I will be satisfied. Nothing that I have ever encountered has forced me to be as okay with time alone with myself, to go outside of my comfort zone to create relationships, or actively tap into the community around me for entertainment.
I am really starting to make friends with my roommates even though they are all so different than me or where I come from. Same story with my co-workers. I think the closest I've come to people I'm used to being friends with are the people I've met on my slowpitch team. Speaking of, we have a tournament this weekend that I'm realllly excited about. It is a really fun group of people and we all seem to be pretty good. I'm going to have to try and contain some of this Wolter competitiveness or else all these new friends are going to this I'm a freak...
As far as work goes, it has been great having Dianna back in the office. It has taken a lot of the stress of trying to create things to do for everyone when I am new myself. It is very exciting to really start digging in to what we are going to be trying to accomplish with our organization. We are essentially running a needs analysis within 4 counties in East Texas and then developing our programming around this needs analysis. I was originally put in charge of the Bi-lingual/Multicultural Program Development (whata joke right? I'm not bi-lingual and I was raised and lived in the whitest places on earth) Well, since that lady that conned the system never came I am now in charge of her position as the Job Skills/Training Program Development which I think I can really do great things with. It is also a main aspect of the mission of our organization. The Almond Tree's mission is to help individuals and families to become self sufficient through assistance with transitional housing and job skill training. All of the other programs will work to aid in self sufficiency through different outlets like technology, disaster relief. etc. The beautiful thing is that this is giving us the opportunity to find out what the missing gaps are with assistance in these communities and create our programming accordingly. I'm rambling but the bottom line is I feel like I'm actually somewhere I feel like I can not only make an impact, but I also feel like the feelings I have now are why I thought I'd love PR in nonprofit in the first place. I feel like this experience has shown me both the ugly and beautiful sides of the motives of a nonprofit orgaization and the people who run them.
Once I save up some cash, which may take God knows how long, I want to start seeing Texas. If anyone has any suggestions of great places to visit leave comments. I'd love to hear them!
Ash
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
The REAL first day!
So today was the first day with all the other VISTAs! Today was the start for all the other VISTA Volunteers that are going to be giving a year of service to The Almond Tree. They had been at PSO(pre-service orientation) the last few days and were all rarin' to go. I loved PSO and all the great people I met during that experience, so I was pretty jealous that they were all just getting done. It is one of the few places where you can go and see hundreds of other people from different part of the country, varying in age, background, ethnicity, but all are in one common place for a wonderful mission. Even though I myself am still very new to being a VISTA at The Almond Tree I have been put in charge of running the entire office this week while Dianna is down at a leadership training in Austin.
Aside from 2 people being an hour late and one person never showing up at all I think it was a pretty successful day. Crazy story, one of the women who was supposed to be coming to work with us never showed up today. Well, after further talking with some of the other women who had gone to PSO, which was located in Albuquerque, they said that this woman had changed her flight time. On further examining the situation, realizing that both of her sons happen to live in Albuquerque, we realized that this woman pretty much scammed AmeriCorps for a free flight to New Mexico. Definitely not in the spirit of what everyone is trying to do but it sounds like she had been given a pretty tough road. Apparently she was up in Jacksonville fleeing the coast when hurricanes Hugo and Ike hit last year and a tree fell on her car. Well without any insurance or money to fix it she essentially became stranded here. All of the people that become displaced and never make it back home weeks/months/years after a hurricane evacuation was astounding to me. I guess being up North all my life I have never really considered the effects a hurricane has on the people after the severe weather has left.
Annnnnnnyway, sorry, got sidetracked. Today was pretty laidback, standard first day coverage type stuff. In the afternoon we did head out to meet with 4 different organization within the Jacksonville community, two churches, two nonprofit organizations. I was astounded at the way the churches operate in the south. Yes, I have moved to the Bible Belt but these things are built like 4 star hotels. They are huge with the first one we visited today serving a congregation over 700. It was incredible to see all of the outreach they were doing within their community. A pastor at the first church we visited today had such a wonderful quote when we were discussing the various outreach programs he has created. He said that he was a Senior Pastor for 7 years but realized as he stood up there preaching he was more concerned with what was going on outside of the church.
He said, "a church is just a warehouse until you put God's work into motion" Basically that just because people all go and congregate in a building every week doesn't mean they are doing God's work. It takes action to make it a church, a place serving God. I was glad to hear that type of insight for a pastor, that its more your actions than your physical location on Sundays mornings that matters most.
It was great to hear all of the ways they felt our organization could reach the needs o the community. It is exciting to be with an organization that has the freedom to actually create itself as it realizes needs opposed to one that already has a designated area of expertise. We are going to do it all!
Tomorrow I am going to go out to supper with a guy from my co-ed team and his wife and new little baby. I think he feels sorry for me not having any friends, haha. At this point I'll take a sympathy hang out.
I feel so motivated. In Casper it felt like I was stagnet, stuck with my wheels spinning in the mud. Here I feel like I can make an impact and I am already looking into other constructive ways to spend my time. I am going to look into getting maybe a part time money maker working as a hitting instructor at a local indoor batting facility. I'm also looking into the possibility of going to school part time at night while I'm doing AmeriCorps to get my Masters Degree. All just thoughts but I guess thats where it all starts.
aaaaaand drumroll please.....bhshshshshshshhhhhhhhhhh!
A website most of you probably know about but my family may not. I can picture my uncle Jon really loving this site actually.
www.peopleofwalmart.com
The address says it all. It all the creeps, weirdos, nastys, and fatsos we have ALL SEEN at our favorite have it all shopping center. Enjoy :)
Aside from 2 people being an hour late and one person never showing up at all I think it was a pretty successful day. Crazy story, one of the women who was supposed to be coming to work with us never showed up today. Well, after further talking with some of the other women who had gone to PSO, which was located in Albuquerque, they said that this woman had changed her flight time. On further examining the situation, realizing that both of her sons happen to live in Albuquerque, we realized that this woman pretty much scammed AmeriCorps for a free flight to New Mexico. Definitely not in the spirit of what everyone is trying to do but it sounds like she had been given a pretty tough road. Apparently she was up in Jacksonville fleeing the coast when hurricanes Hugo and Ike hit last year and a tree fell on her car. Well without any insurance or money to fix it she essentially became stranded here. All of the people that become displaced and never make it back home weeks/months/years after a hurricane evacuation was astounding to me. I guess being up North all my life I have never really considered the effects a hurricane has on the people after the severe weather has left.
Annnnnnnyway, sorry, got sidetracked. Today was pretty laidback, standard first day coverage type stuff. In the afternoon we did head out to meet with 4 different organization within the Jacksonville community, two churches, two nonprofit organizations. I was astounded at the way the churches operate in the south. Yes, I have moved to the Bible Belt but these things are built like 4 star hotels. They are huge with the first one we visited today serving a congregation over 700. It was incredible to see all of the outreach they were doing within their community. A pastor at the first church we visited today had such a wonderful quote when we were discussing the various outreach programs he has created. He said that he was a Senior Pastor for 7 years but realized as he stood up there preaching he was more concerned with what was going on outside of the church.
He said, "a church is just a warehouse until you put God's work into motion" Basically that just because people all go and congregate in a building every week doesn't mean they are doing God's work. It takes action to make it a church, a place serving God. I was glad to hear that type of insight for a pastor, that its more your actions than your physical location on Sundays mornings that matters most.
It was great to hear all of the ways they felt our organization could reach the needs o the community. It is exciting to be with an organization that has the freedom to actually create itself as it realizes needs opposed to one that already has a designated area of expertise. We are going to do it all!
Tomorrow I am going to go out to supper with a guy from my co-ed team and his wife and new little baby. I think he feels sorry for me not having any friends, haha. At this point I'll take a sympathy hang out.
I feel so motivated. In Casper it felt like I was stagnet, stuck with my wheels spinning in the mud. Here I feel like I can make an impact and I am already looking into other constructive ways to spend my time. I am going to look into getting maybe a part time money maker working as a hitting instructor at a local indoor batting facility. I'm also looking into the possibility of going to school part time at night while I'm doing AmeriCorps to get my Masters Degree. All just thoughts but I guess thats where it all starts.
aaaaaand drumroll please.....bhshshshshshshhhhhhhhhhh!
A website most of you probably know about but my family may not. I can picture my uncle Jon really loving this site actually.
www.peopleofwalmart.com
The address says it all. It all the creeps, weirdos, nastys, and fatsos we have ALL SEEN at our favorite have it all shopping center. Enjoy :)
Saturday, February 13, 2010
My New Place!
Hey all,
I just finished moving into my new place in Tyler today! As most of you already know who talk to me on a regular basis I'm living in a house that has 7 seperate different rooms. Some rooms have a couple people and others just one with most of the residents being college students at TJC(Tyler Junior College). There is like a 40 something year old lady here so at least I'm not the Old Maid of the house. Its nice because my room is large enough to feel like I have my own small apartment aside from sharing the kitchen area with everyone else. I haven't had a chance to meet everyone yet but everyone seems pretty cool.
It is just exciting to be living in Tyler instead of Jacksonville, back into civilization! Even being able to write this blog from the comfort of my own bed is something I haven't been able to experience since moving down here. I am going to miss the simplicity of living with Dianna and Waymon but I'll definitely take phone service over simplicity any day.
Casper has done a great job winning over everyone and especially my landlord. He was worried about him being so big and then ofcourse he fell in love with him as soon as he saw him. He actually offered for Casper to come stay in their big fenced in yard while I'm at work during the day. I'm going to go swing by their place to pick up a copy of my lease and check it out sometime this week hopefully. What a shmooozer this dog is. No wonder I adopted him.
The only other big thing that has happened here is the SNOW! I know that none of you think its a big deal up there in that icy midwestern tundra but down here some young people have never even seen snow. We got 6-8 inches in Jacksonville but over a foot near Dallas. It was actually really beautiful but wont be here for long; back up to 57 degrees tomorrow :)
Oh, and tomorrow I'm meeting up with a group of people that I'm going to be playing slowpitch softball with here in the upcoming weeks to go to an indoor hitting facility. I dont know if it is going to be some of the same people I practiced with last weekend or not, but I hope so. It always feels good to take a few cuts. It will be a sad substitute for VUSB having their opening day tomorrow and me not being a part of it :-/
Anyway, here are some pictures of my new place and the snowfall from today. I have also put up a couple from Jacksonville Lake from last week.
Lake Jacksonville
This is the night we went to a "greasy spoon" and Dianna and Waymon sang acoustic blue grass gospels.
These next three photos are of the common area that everyone in our house uses. There is a shot of the house from the outside as well.
I just finished moving into my new place in Tyler today! As most of you already know who talk to me on a regular basis I'm living in a house that has 7 seperate different rooms. Some rooms have a couple people and others just one with most of the residents being college students at TJC(Tyler Junior College). There is like a 40 something year old lady here so at least I'm not the Old Maid of the house. Its nice because my room is large enough to feel like I have my own small apartment aside from sharing the kitchen area with everyone else. I haven't had a chance to meet everyone yet but everyone seems pretty cool.
It is just exciting to be living in Tyler instead of Jacksonville, back into civilization! Even being able to write this blog from the comfort of my own bed is something I haven't been able to experience since moving down here. I am going to miss the simplicity of living with Dianna and Waymon but I'll definitely take phone service over simplicity any day.
Casper has done a great job winning over everyone and especially my landlord. He was worried about him being so big and then ofcourse he fell in love with him as soon as he saw him. He actually offered for Casper to come stay in their big fenced in yard while I'm at work during the day. I'm going to go swing by their place to pick up a copy of my lease and check it out sometime this week hopefully. What a shmooozer this dog is. No wonder I adopted him.
The only other big thing that has happened here is the SNOW! I know that none of you think its a big deal up there in that icy midwestern tundra but down here some young people have never even seen snow. We got 6-8 inches in Jacksonville but over a foot near Dallas. It was actually really beautiful but wont be here for long; back up to 57 degrees tomorrow :)
Oh, and tomorrow I'm meeting up with a group of people that I'm going to be playing slowpitch softball with here in the upcoming weeks to go to an indoor hitting facility. I dont know if it is going to be some of the same people I practiced with last weekend or not, but I hope so. It always feels good to take a few cuts. It will be a sad substitute for VUSB having their opening day tomorrow and me not being a part of it :-/
Anyway, here are some pictures of my new place and the snowfall from today. I have also put up a couple from Jacksonville Lake from last week.
Lake Jacksonville
This is the night we went to a "greasy spoon" and Dianna and Waymon sang acoustic blue grass gospels.
These next three photos are of the common area that everyone in our house uses. There is a shot of the house from the outside as well.
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
Church Fires Terrorizing East Texas
Since the beginning of the year there have been over 7 churches in East Texas that have fallen victim to arson. It has been all over the news here lately and is actually really troubling to watch. Religion is a huge part of the families and communities in East Texas with many people having the churches their families have gone to for generation destroyed. Since my Supervisor and her husband are both pastors at a rural church outside of Jacksonville these stories have hit a little closer to home than I could have ever imagined. They are fearful of their own small rural church located only a half hour away from where several other arsons have taken place.
Today on the radio they said they suspect it to be an arson or a group of arsons. Wow, brilliant police work. I wonder if it is something trying to take a stand against the vice religion has on this part of the country? There is a lot of religious radio networks here and a man was discussing the recent fires bluntly said today, "You wonder what whoever has done this will have to say when he meets his maker. I'm pretty sure he might just hear, "Oh, you like fire, I know the perfect place for ya."" Touche, radio guy, touche.
Whoever these anti-religious pyros are, I hope they begin to realize as I have that all these fires are doing are unifying the religious community. I feel like you could insert some type of fire joke here but I'd probably be too soon...
Here is a more detailed article by the Wall Street Journal on the church fires.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703455804575057612462847940.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Today on the radio they said they suspect it to be an arson or a group of arsons. Wow, brilliant police work. I wonder if it is something trying to take a stand against the vice religion has on this part of the country? There is a lot of religious radio networks here and a man was discussing the recent fires bluntly said today, "You wonder what whoever has done this will have to say when he meets his maker. I'm pretty sure he might just hear, "Oh, you like fire, I know the perfect place for ya."" Touche, radio guy, touche.
Whoever these anti-religious pyros are, I hope they begin to realize as I have that all these fires are doing are unifying the religious community. I feel like you could insert some type of fire joke here but I'd probably be too soon...
Here is a more detailed article by the Wall Street Journal on the church fires.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703455804575057612462847940.html?mod=googlenews_wsj
Here Goes Nothin'...
Starting your own blog kind of feels like standing out in the street naked at first. It is always a scary thing to create a place where your thoughts, opinions, experiences can fall under the criticism of anyone who decides to take a peak but then I realized that's just every day life. As I prefaced in the title, I wanted to start this blog to really document everything I learn, experience, and witness while on this journey. I'm definitely not starting this to voice all types of opinions on politics, creating my own soapbox to preach from. No. I am just looking for a place to reflect on my own journey and share that with people who might be interested. Looking back, I wish I would have started this from where it all began back in July, but better late than never, right? I guess I see it as a way I can share everything with everyone all at once. I know I don't get to see, speak, and share with all of you as much as I would like, and this creates the perfect climate for all that (minus the seeing part but thats what skype is for ;) )
Now that we know why I've decided to blog I think its important to give some insight into why I've chosen the path I have for this time in my life.
There have been things in my life that I have always known for certain and other things have remained a mystery. I think once you know what the constants in your life will be, for me, family, friends, small town values, you begin to try and solve all the things that remain a mystery. You want to see who you really are when you are tested, alone with the unfamiliar. I think that these are the years that I have been given the freedom to find out.
I have lived in a world similar to the one I was brought up in. I went to college with people that came from similar backgrounds, with similar interests, mostly a "midwest" point of view. It has been incredible to first go to Wyoming and be immersed in the culture of that place. A state known for its low population and upon arrival soon realized that that is exactly the way everyone there wants it. I loved the pace, loved the people. The way of life was slower, simpler but they embraced and loved it. I feel the same way about home. People question what could be so wonderful about a place like Iowa but you don't really see the beauty in simplicity unless you were raised on the stuff.
Now I'm in Jacksonville, Texas. The Bible Belt. The Lonestar State. So far, I have loved it! The people I've met have validated that southern hospitality is a real thing. Everyone greets you with warm words and smiles. I do have to admit it could be my partial love of the southern accent playing a role, and lets be serious, the warm weather in February doesn't hurt either. I started my first day of service to The Almond Tree Community Resource & Training Center the first of February and have loved it so far. I am 1 of 10 VISTAs that will work for this organization through the AmeriCorps VISTA program. I am the only transfer and the only person from outside of Texas for that matter.I can't wait for everyone else to get started the 16th and really get to know even more people with different stories to tell. It is an organization that is really still in its early stages but has the potential to do incredible things.
Well, I guess thats all for now. I move into my new place on Saturday and I can't wait to have somewhere all to myself. Living in Tyler, a city of 80,000 north or Jacksonville will also be a nice change of pace. I have never lived anywhere that big before and look forward to having so many things at my disposal.
Aaaaan I'll wrap it up with some sites I found today that I really loved.
50 Most Inspiring Traveling Quotes
http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2008/03/07/50-most-inspiring-travel-quotes-of-all-time/
and
http://thebarstoolromantic.com/
<3 Ash
Now that we know why I've decided to blog I think its important to give some insight into why I've chosen the path I have for this time in my life.
There have been things in my life that I have always known for certain and other things have remained a mystery. I think once you know what the constants in your life will be, for me, family, friends, small town values, you begin to try and solve all the things that remain a mystery. You want to see who you really are when you are tested, alone with the unfamiliar. I think that these are the years that I have been given the freedom to find out.
I have lived in a world similar to the one I was brought up in. I went to college with people that came from similar backgrounds, with similar interests, mostly a "midwest" point of view. It has been incredible to first go to Wyoming and be immersed in the culture of that place. A state known for its low population and upon arrival soon realized that that is exactly the way everyone there wants it. I loved the pace, loved the people. The way of life was slower, simpler but they embraced and loved it. I feel the same way about home. People question what could be so wonderful about a place like Iowa but you don't really see the beauty in simplicity unless you were raised on the stuff.
Now I'm in Jacksonville, Texas. The Bible Belt. The Lonestar State. So far, I have loved it! The people I've met have validated that southern hospitality is a real thing. Everyone greets you with warm words and smiles. I do have to admit it could be my partial love of the southern accent playing a role, and lets be serious, the warm weather in February doesn't hurt either. I started my first day of service to The Almond Tree Community Resource & Training Center the first of February and have loved it so far. I am 1 of 10 VISTAs that will work for this organization through the AmeriCorps VISTA program. I am the only transfer and the only person from outside of Texas for that matter.I can't wait for everyone else to get started the 16th and really get to know even more people with different stories to tell. It is an organization that is really still in its early stages but has the potential to do incredible things.
Well, I guess thats all for now. I move into my new place on Saturday and I can't wait to have somewhere all to myself. Living in Tyler, a city of 80,000 north or Jacksonville will also be a nice change of pace. I have never lived anywhere that big before and look forward to having so many things at my disposal.
Aaaaan I'll wrap it up with some sites I found today that I really loved.
50 Most Inspiring Traveling Quotes
http://www.bravenewtraveler.com/2008/03/07/50-most-inspiring-travel-quotes-of-all-time/
and
http://thebarstoolromantic.com/
<3 Ash
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