So, I've been a little negligent. But, I didn't really feel there was much that was exciting or enthralling to report on. Now that I look back and see how much time I have to update, maybe I should have posted a boring intermediary blog. :) Hindsight is always 20-20 on that sort of thing.
Anyway, you left me after my last experience at the factory and working temporary jobs. I had decided that $500 was my goal for the summer before I started work and after my work with the temp jobs, I only had $130. Fortunately for me, Carol (Connor's mom) found an opportunity for me to work for her while she was the director of a tournament in Kansas City. I was able to get some great experience working with Social Media to build a fan base and was paid for it. This put me to my goal, so working of the summer was over. Maybe I should have worked more, but I've been pretty busy anyway.
Last week, I went to a retreat in Rapid City, SD, which is about 5.5 hours from where I'm staying right now. This retreat was basically a review on how to interact with co-workers in the workplace and especially with your supervisor. All of the VISTAs in the South Dakota were there, so it was pretty cool to know what else people were doing in the state. I also had to drive across the state with the other VISTA in the Sioux Falls area. He was interesting. Entertaining and a little weird, but I think that people would say that about me too. We had a lot of fun and it made the drive easier than it would have been if we'd had to drive by ourselves.
I met the VISTA Coordinator for SD because she ran the retreat and found out that she is also in the Marketing office in the Rapid City office. One of the more interesting things is that another man who works in the marketing office there as a VISTA had actually served 7 years in prison for theft and other things. I found him pretty interesting because I've only recently learned that people can actually change for the better. I know it sounds shallow to say that, but it's a strange concept to me that people can suppress or get rid of a side of themselves that allowed them to act in ways that were so wrong. In his case, theft isn't so bad. But, he told me he was part of a gang etc. I'm still learning about people and how they change throughout their lives, I suppose.
Anyway, it was cool to be across the state and up in the hills. Saw a mountain lion when I was out running, that was pretty scary. It was kind of surreal, my reaction to it. There was not initial terror or immobilization. Part of me knew that maybe I would want to scream, but part of me thought that I could just walk away quietly and be fine. So, I did the latter and was ok. I think that I was just really lucky that it didn't see me/wasn't hungry/wasn't threatened.
I spent some time with Connor and got to check out Keystone which was a lot of fun, we got ice-cream. La-de-da, I always have a good time with him.
I got back to Sioux Falls on Sunday, did some laundry, and was headed for Minneapolis by Tuesday for my 'Pre-Service Orientation'. Here, I learned a lot more about how VISTA works within an office, and how to find more information about what my role is supposed to be in the office I am working in. It was really helpful. I'd like to say that it was a really enlightening few days about the way we feel about poverty, etc. But it wasn't and I think that's ok. We talked about what poverty meant to us and when we first recognized it in the world. When you get a group of people like that together, they all want to tell their story in such a meaningful way that I guess the point just passed me by. Not to say that I'm not passionate about helping people alleviate poverty, or to help people themselves get out of it. I'm just to the point where I've recognized the issue and don't need the persuasion anymore.
Needless to say, I'm ready to get started and I start tomorrow! Of course, I'm going to miss being able to just sit around and do what I want all day, but I suppose that's all a part of growing up.
Wish me luck! It's going to be busy, hard, and educational for this entire next year!
No comments:
Post a Comment