Louisville!

Alright. Here goes another attempt at keeping up with this blog.

The title is still appropriate...here I am two months into my third year with AmeriCorps. Changing and improving communities one step at a time.

It's interesting the variety of service I have been exposed to these past three years. I started out doing direct service, getting my hands dirty, seeing my hard work's results in front of my eyes. To working behind the scenes at a non-profit and helping to build the capacity of the agency, not necessarily seeing the outcome, but knowing that with all the hard work there will likely be multiple positive outcomes out in the community.

Louisville. It's possible here.

This brings us to me here in Louisville. Here in Louisville I am a VISTA Leader. This means I am supporting and guiding VISTAs here in Louisville to build capacity of non-profits. So I have kind of taken one more step back (or up depending on how you look at it) in the hierarchy of nonprofits and community service.

It was a slow start moving to Louisville. When I first got here I didn't have to work the first week as the place I work was under construction, so that gave Travis and I some time to get settled into our apartment (pictures to come when maybe it's not such a mess). When I was finally able to come into work, the construction was still going on and they were moving offices and everything was quite hectic. It wasn't until last week that I felt settled, with an office space, a computer with working internet, a phone to use, no construction noises, paint fumes or anything to distract me from my work.

A taste of what my apartment looks like
(although it don't look like this anymore)

Where I work is the Americana Community Center. The community center is a fantastic place serving a diverse population of refugees, immigrants, as well as US citizens. Americana provides a wide variety of services including Family Education, an After School Program, ESL classes, GED classes, and Citizenship classes. The reason my office is located in the community center is because the grant for the VISTA project I lead is through Americana. The project supervisor is my supervisor and is on staff here at Americana. So within our VISTA project are 10 (soon to be 12) VISTAs at a variety of nonprofits around Louisville. I am here to act as a support and contact for the VISTAs and their supervisors to ensure they have a pleasant and successful year.

So far, I feel really good about this position. I work in a great environment, with great people and the VISTAs are all very passionate about what they are doing, and that makes me even more motivated to do a great job.

Me and my fellow ex -SC VISTA newly VISTA Leaders Nicole and Liz

I was lucky enough to be able to attend a training for my position and travel to Chicago for 4 days. I. Love. Traveling. Every single bit of it. Something about it gives me such a sense of independence. I love relying on myself and only myself to get from point A to point B. It makes me realize I really am an adult and am responsible for everything I do. Chicago was great. It gave me a chance to see some of my lovely ladies who were VISTAs with me in SC who became VISTA Leaders else where. It also was a fantastic opportunity to meet a large amount of people who are just as passionate as I am. Every single one of these people was willing to commit to yet another year in AmeriCorps (don't know how many were as silly as me and doing it a third time). It also gave me an opportunity to see one of my very good friends who was actually on my team while I was in NCCC. She lives just outside of Chicago and was nice enough to play tour guide for a rainy, cold, dark night. I said "I just want to be a tourist" and be a tourist I did.

Our lovely tour guide Emma and a really cool shot of the Bean!

Living in Louisville has been interesting so far. Technically I live in Indiana (it was a bit cheaper) but the easiest way to explain it is New Albany is to Louisville as South Portland is to Portland. I can get to downtown Louisville in less than 10 minutes, while not living in the big city, but rather a separate, smaller city which is more convenient for getting to grocery stores, target, etc. while also having the ease of getting downtown for anything exciting that might be going on.

Pumpkin patch!

I have officially been here 2 months now, and I have to say, Louisville is all about festivals! There have been so many different festivals happening from art, to fall, to food, to beer. This city definitely has a lot of exciting stuff to offer, and as long as I'm willing to keep an eye out for things going on, I simply cannot get bored here. With it being what I am officially calling my favorite season EVER Kentucky and Indiana have a lot to offer as far as fun fall festivities go. Like always, attempted apple picking but I was too late in the darn season and all the apples had been picked. So. To the corn maze and pumpkin patch we go! Travis and I spent a day finding our way through the corn maze (backwards, mind you. We were confusing the heck out of everyone who passed us) and then took a tractor ride to the pumpkin patch where we each picked a pumpkin and will be soon having a carve-off. It's on.

Me and Travis in the corn maze. It was perfect weather.

My view from my transfer stop for the bus to work.

Now. I made a big accomplishment in my life this past week. My drive to work roundtrip is about 28 miles (everyone laughs at me when I complain about that, but come on guys, I went from being able to walk to Hannaford in 2 minutes, to living where I work with NCCC, to a 4 mile drive in SC, a 20 minute drive for me is a big deal, ok!?) But I am mostly feeling it when it comes to filling up my car with gas. When I have to fill my car up every week, we've got a problem. So. Being a good problem solver, I decided to become a big girl and learn how to ride the big city bus. Luckily, the public transportation in Louisville includes Indiana since it is a part of the metro area. So I had to consider the great money saving advantages, and then consider the time commitment. Is an extra hour and a half a day worth an extra $30-$40 in my pocket each month? As a VISTA living in poverty....YES! So I stepped up my game and bought some bus passes to first test it out, and I survived two round trips so far! (including my two long walks from the bus stop to my car being hit on by what seems men who just wait for beautiful women as myself to get off so they can talk my ear off hitting on me almost all the way to my car...) So being hit on aside, I think this whole bus deal will be my best bet. VISTA wants us to truly understand what it is like to live in poverty, well, here you go government, I GET IT!

I think I've caught you up mostly on what is happening in my life for now. More to come I am sure. Also. Just booked my flight home for Christmas. I am quite delightfully excited. Hope all is well my lovely people! <3

Oops. End of my year as a VISTA

Oh my gosh. This blog has been an epic fail on my part this year and I apologize sincerely to those of you who I know are dedicated followers. But to put it simply, this year wasn't quite as exciting on a constant basis as last year was. But. My job here at Big Brothers Big Sisters has been fulfilling for the most part, but I am more than ready to move on.

Being an AmeriCorps*VISTA for a year has shown me how much help really is needed in every community. Being a VISTA we are to live in poverty as those we are helping do every day. Whenever I would lose focus as to why I am here, there would always be a reminder that would pop up, whether it was getting to talk to a kid and how having a Big Brother has changed his life, or hearing a Big talk about the accomplishments they have seen their little do in such little time. The kids that benefit from this program really do need an extra support and I encourage all of you out there, if not becoming a mentor, to look into volunteer opportunities around your community and give back. I know that once I get settled I am going to continue to be a part of this program and want to become a Big Sister myself.

Now, the big question, what's next?? Well. As I am on a roll of moving to new and exciting places, I am all packed up and ready to move to Louisville, KY this Friday. I will be moving there with my boyfriend Travis whom I met here in Spartanburg where he was part of a program where he was a Writer in Residence.When he moved back to Kentucky we were going through our options and tried our darndest to move to Charleston, SC because it is so dreamy and beautiful and quite awesome. But. It just wasn't in the cards for us. Finding a place to live and for me finding a job just wasn't lining up. So We decided on Louisville, a place neither of us has lived, but is only a 2 hour drive from his family and where there are many more opportunities for me to find a job there. I just found out this afternoon that I received a position with AmeriCorps as a VISTA Leader (a step up from what I'm currently doing.) Essentially I will be a leader and support for 12 VISTAs in Louisville and be a kind of liaison for them and their supervisors to get them through their year. Yes, this will be my 3rd year with AmeriCorps, but AmeriCorps has been such an amazing experience for me so far, I figure one last year wouldn't hurt. (hint: keep an eye out on Facebook, if I get it, you will certainly know, if you don't see it on my Facebook chances are you'd hear it from me or my mom anyway.)

When I first went into AmeriCorps NCCC 2 years ago I was a naive girl who had yet to move away from home because for some reason I was scared of this big world. But. Little did I know, I would grow so much as a person simply by letting go and moving on. NCCC opened my eyes to the beautiful concept of community service. I had never given a thought to helping anyone else out, I was worried about surviving myself. But when my eyes were opened to how lucky I have been in life as to what I have been provided, I realized I had to become selfless and spend my life giving back to others that are less fortunate than I. Being able to provide direct service and physically see the difference I made is so heart warming and pushed me to want to do more. So when I decided to become a VISTA, I got to see the other side of service which is essentially the behind the scenes work.

Proof that this year has helped me grow as a person is that I am moving to a brand new city where I only know one person, at the time didn't have a job and will essentially be starting new. The Annie 2 years ago would be having an absolute catastrophic meltdown at the idea of all of that. But. I have grown to the point where I have enough confidence in myself that I know I want to be happy there. I have this new outlook on life that everything will fall into place as it is supposed to. Although I have to work for it, but I am more than willing to work for it. I want to be successful in life, and success in life right now to me is being happy, and enjoying what I do everyday. I don't want to settle for a job that I wake up every morning dreading having to go to work. I want to be excited to go. Now, if to start I have to settle for that job to become stable while I find that job, I can handle that, but I won't give into that forever.

I also realized that I know now where my sense of adventure and fearlessness to move to a brand new place comes from. My dad. My dad was a man who did things "just cause". He wanted to move to Florida and work at Universal Studios, so, he packed up his family of 4 and moved to Orlando, FL (with a 1 and 6 year old, brave, brave man). For whatever reason, it didn't work out, so, we moved right back to Maine. Then 12 years later, he wants to be a security guard at the Sahara hotel, ok, sure, let's all up and move all the way across the country to Las Vegas (what!?). I love so much telling people that story because it takes them by surprise every time because it is so out of the ordinary for a family from Maine to up and move to Vegas for 8 months. But I have come to realize, if you take a chance and it doesn't work out, there is always somewhere to go. There will always be people supporting you and a place to go back to. I want to move to Louisville, so by gosh, I'm going to!

It was such a relief to hear today about getting this position. It is going to be a great way to network and learn a lot about the Louisville community. I am also going to take the time to volunteer some places. I really want to volunteer at the Louisville Science Center and learn more about what they do, as well as hopefully becoming a Big Sister at some point this year. So. Just wanted to share all this fabulous information with you. I am not guaranteeing that I will get any better at this blog, but maybe I can come up with a new concept for it that will make me want to share my new experiences with you. Wish me luck and drop me a text/facebook/email message if you would like my new address. Mail and goodies are always accepted. <3 you all!

Almost April...REALLY!?

Hello from the warmest place on Earth (or so it feels like to me for being the end of March). This is probs going to be a very boring blog, but, to please you readers I shall write.

I've been lucky and been able to visit some new places, I was able to go to Charlotte and visit IKEA which I fell in love with. When I become a millionare (haven't quite figured out how yet...) I'm going to wander in there and say "Excuse me, I want this exact room, I'll take it all" If you haven't been able to make it to one, please do. I could stay in there for hours sitting on all the couches (I simply can't help myself). I can't wait to have my own place and be able to decorate...and afford it...then I wandered around downtown Charlotte which is just another big city to me. It was cool to be around big buildings again but it wasn't anything special. Although I didn't go looking to do anything special either, just thought I'd check it out to claim "Why yes, I've been to Charlotte".
Another weekend I was able to go down to Columbia, the lovely state capitol. It is a very old city, and is where USC is located. I went to a competition called Poetry Out Loud where high schoolers recite their favorite poems in hopes to win a chance to go to DC for the national competition. That was at the Art Museum which was pretty cool. I did another wander around the city type deal, and can now say I have been to Columbia. :) I do want to go back though because I didn't have enough time but at the State Museum they have the BodyWorlds exhibit and I really badly have been wanting to see that for a while now, so I think that'll be another trip on down there!
And my other adventure was to Asheville to see the badn Dr Dog perform which I loved, it was at this venue called The Orange Peel which has a really cool vibe to it. It just felt good to be at a concert with live music that I love. I was getting sick of wandering into a bar and hear another stupid cover band. I was ready for some good and beautiful music. Although I had worked from 9-7 that day then spent 3 hours standing at that concert, needless to say I was completely exhausted and luckily had the whole next day off! I want to make it back to Asheville with time to wander around more. It has a feel to it that reminds me of Portland (minus the ocean of course) But I can tell you. It is hippie central, I found myself in a sea of plaid shirts and some pretty awesome beards. So it felt comforting compared to here in Spartanburg.
Had an ok St. Patty's Day, was pretty excited cause I went to the only Irish bar in Spartanburg and thought they'd know how to throw a good St Patty's Day, I was incorrect on that assumption. There was a stupid cover band, no green beer, and just wasn't what I was expecting, so I was kind of let down. It's hard when a year ago I was in Denver where have a day long parade and all the bars are hopping and have green beer. That's all I was asking for was one green beer...but...alas I left with none. But it's ok, I just wanted to get out and experience it, didn't like it so now I know where not to be on St. Patty's day!
Still haven't quite decided where I'm going to move in 4 and a half months but I'm weighing all of my options. I have been super intimidated by applying for jobs, although I know, I know that's the only way I'm going to get one but. I haven't had the inspiration to write about how awesome I am. I know it. You know it. Isn't that enough? I wish. If anyone out there is willing to write some awesome cover letters in exchange for hugs, please feel free to let me know. *Requirement = you have to agree how awesome I am before I let you write about how awesome I am.
So biggest news I have is that in a week from Saturday I will be jumping out of a perfectly fine airplane with my mother. Yes, we know, we've heard it from all of you, we're crazy, but I am super excited (nervous yes, of course) but is something I've always wanted to do and there is no turning back because it has been paid for and there are no refunds...And after that we are going to head to Charleston for a couple days and stay at a hotel on the beach :) I cannot WAIT to see the ocean again. 3 months is too long to not see the dang ocean when you grew up 2 minutes from it. So I absolutely cannot wait to see my mom and show her where I've been living the last 7 months! And I'm sure she can't wait to share some of this lovely weather :)
And then a month after that I will be heading to DC to visit Brian and Lindsay for Lindsay's graduation! Yay! Then might potentially come home sometime in June, haven't quite decided yet. But it's nice to have things to look forward to spread out, that will help me get through these next 4 months a little more sanely!

Well it's been nice catching you all up, I think that's all I have for now? If I think of anything I'll come back here and blab all about it! Adios!

January in South Carolina

I.Am.An.Awful.Blogger. Sorry. It's just so crazy that this year is not quite as exciting as the last. BUT it's still an adventure. I do have to say, I don't mind being in South Carolina for winter. There has been zero inches of snow, a minimum of maaaaybe 30 something degrees. We have had a couple 70 degree days in January and February and you won't hear me complain about it. I was able to get out and play some bocce, go on a walk, a bike ride, really not too shabby for January :)

Let's see what else I was able to do in January...I was able to go to Atlanta with work and had a great time. I was in Atlanta for my training back in August for 4 days but didn't step foot out into the city because my bed at the Marriott was just too comfy to leave (This had only been a week after returning from NCCC in which I spent about 8 months total sleeping on an air mattress...)  There was a donor who offered for 25 Big Brothers Big Sisters matches to take a trip to Atlanta the Saturday before Martin Luther King Day. And lucky for me staff is invited to go! We were able to go to the MLK monument which was cool because the bigs were able to teach their littles a little bit about what the day was all about. Then we headed to the aquarium where I absolutely fell in love and could spend the whole day there just staring at the amazement that exsists there. Just love it. And then we went to the World of Coke which in all honesty, kinda sucks. But, hey, got to see it so that's pretty cool. I got to taste a bunch of Coca Cola products from around the world, there is a lot of nasty ones, but I personally think apple soda is a brilliant idea. And then we ended the day by going to The Varsity for dinner. This was one of the things I had so many people tell me I needed to do while in the city. It is quite an experience. I had to wait in line about 20 minutes to order my food and I got a burger, onion rings and their "orange drink" which is just like Hi-C orange, but it was all very delicious and I'm glad I was able to experience Atlanta properly after failing to appreciate it when I went for training.

Then on Martin Luther King Jr Day us VISTAs were all team leaders for groups of people to go out and do a service project. I was so happy to get out and do some direct service again finally. But what did I get to do? I worked in a thrift store dusting shelves and putting price tags on clothes (sound a bit familiar Fire 6?) and I had a group of high schoolers who honestly just didn't want to be there. They were a part of an AmeriCorps group in which they go out and tutor kids in school, and as I asked them why they were here today they basically all agreed they were there "For the hours" and didn't want to answer any of my questions about MLK and made me really frustrated. I could have sat there for an hour talking to them about how important community service is and why they should be wanting to do this, but I held it in and let them go. I just got very frustrated that they felt they were there by requirement only. I wanted to instill in them what AmeriCorps is all about and that it is  more than a resume builder (which that ain't too shabby either). But it made me think that maybe this is a good way to tie together my love for working with kids and my newly found love for AmeriCorps and community service. We'll see!

A while ago a mom in our program told us she was a part of a bike club and they wanted to raise money for us and mentioned they would like someone representing BBBS at their event on a Saturday. My co-worker had asked her the obvious questions, Where is the event? When should we be there? What is the dress code?...the answer was The Clarion, at 9:00pm (and that we would be going on after the lingerie show...red flag, right!?) , cocktail attire. So the Clarion is in a sketchy part of the city, so I told my Co-worker I'd go with her to be safe. So I start driving in and I call her and I say "This is a sketchy area" and she told me "just wait till you get to the parking lot"...I pull in and the parking lot is so full and there are biker people walking around everywhere! I pull into a parking lot behind the hotel and was quite honestly afraid to get out of my car. So we go to go inside and the place is surrounded by about 20+ FBI...not a good sign going into it...and the woman told us we would want to stay where we were cause the lingerie show was happening now and we probably didn't want to go back there right now. So we waited around as all these big motorcycle guys were walking around and women in some of the sluttiest outfits I've seen (a lot of sequence and sparkles...and a lot of skin...) So it comes time for us to accept our check and my brave brave co-worker agrees to be the one to go up on stage and accept the check (she was surrounded by about 20 of these women, looking a little out of place in her cute sundress and cardigan (I was wearing a sweater dress, also not blending in very well)) and she did a much better job than I ever could do! And we got out of there as fast as we could...not exactly appropriate for us to be there, next time we will know to just have them send us a check and that we are not available on a Saturday at 9pm after a lingerie show. Quite an interesting experience and don't think I'll be joining a bike club anytime soon...

A lot of you might have seen my FB status related to me MCing our volutneer appreciation banquet. We won some money from the United Way and had to use that money toward volunteers so we decided since January was National Mentoring Month we should through a little thank you banquet for our volunteers. So I spent most of the month planning out this banquet and trying to get as many people to this event as possible. I wasn't quite sure how the event was going to go but it went so amazingly. We had it at a restaurant called City Grill which is a fairly fancy place, so it was nice to be able to treat our volutneers to such delicious food. We had it setup that we had some people speak (a couple of board members, a Big Brother who has been with our program since 1999 and our CEO), showed a slideshow, and presented our Big Brother and Big Sister of the year with awards and videos of their little brother and sister thanking them (it was super cute). What got to me the most was the Big Brother that spoke. He told his story of how he has had 4 little brothers with our program and is currently in his 4th match right now. He still talks to 2 of his other little brothers, one even has a family of his own now. One of his little brothers asked him why he was in a job that he didn't enjoy and told him "you are always telling me to follow my dreams, what is your dream?" and he said how he's always wanted to be a teacher and they made a pact that they would both follow their dreams. The Big Brother is now a teacher at Spartanburg High School, and that little brother is a student there and he wants to become a lawyer. I sat there with my jaw dropped and told myself "this is exactly why I am here and am doing what I am doing." Had a little bit of a revelation and a boost that I had been needing to appreciate this opportunity I have been given to give back and improve a community that so deserves it. Especially for the children in this community who But I did a perfectly fine joare benefiting from a mentor they otherwise wouldn't have. b of MCing. I had a whole script written out to help me but I ended up not having to use it because I forced myself to introduce myself to every person who walked into the room so I wasn't talking to a bunch of strangers. So I got up there and let my personality shine and did a pretty good job for someone who absolutely dreads speaking in front of large groups of people. We got many compliments as to how well the event all came together, so I was very excited to hear that.

What's up next for me here at good ole Big Brothers Big Sisters is we are needing to make a certain number of matches by April in order to get a really big grant which would be amazing, so we are working our butts off to get as many matches made as possible. But also we have our biggest fundraising event coming up called Bowl for Kids Sake. Some of you might have heard of it before, I remember hearing about it when I was back in Maine, the BBBS there does one as well. No matter where you are you can be a part of this fundrasing event for your local BBBS by either getting a team together and raising money or finding out how you can donate. Enough of my promoting my organization. But I'm very excited for this event and hope we do a decent job of raising some money!

In other news, not much else has been going on here in good ole Spartanburg. I have started looking into what the heck I'm going to do with my life come August (yes, it is only 6 months away that I have to figure out the next chapter of my life, NBD...). It is an amazing yet scary thing that I can honestly go anywhere I want. I have considered Denver, DC, Maine, and staying here in SC as to WHERE I would go. But the other part (kinda a big part) is WHAT I want to do. Not only do I need to decide between a) Going back to school or B) Finding a job, I also need to figure out what I would go to school for, or what kind of job I'm looking for. I've been saying how it's crazy that I'm basically complaining that I can do anything with my life right now. But that is so gosh darn intimidating! If you know me, you know I don't like choices and having to make decisions, so when it's as open ended as these options, I'm going a little cray cray down here. So that is going to be a long and stressful 6 months coming up, but I know I'll be fine. I just have absolutely no idea where I'll end up because a year ago I certainly never would have thought in a millioin years I'd be living in South Carolina...I still honestly can't believe it.

As I look back at the last year and a half of my life I don't regret any of it. I have grown so much as a person and was exactly what I needed. 2 years ago I never would have said "Why, yes, I would love to move to Denver and travel every 2 months and not know what kind of conditions I would be living in" or "South Carolina is a place I've always wanted to live! I don't know anyone at all but sure, I'll pack everything I own and move there, I love meeting new people". But now with pure confidence I can say I invite new opportunities, new places and new people into my life. I love the idea of adventures and the unknown (or am at least much more comfotable with them) now. I am excited to see where I end up a year from now and hope that I can say that I love where I am, love the people I've surrounded myself with and most importantly am happy and content with what I am doing with my life.

Well. That was much  more than I expected to share in this blog entry! But I'm sure it will have made a lot of you happy to know that I am doing just fine and am happy for the most part with what I am doing. If anyone has any feedback or suggestions as to what they think I should do or where I should go come August please feel free to text/call/email/facebook/skype me. (there are many ways to get a hold of me) Thanks all for reading, if you made it this far, I'll be very impressed and thanks for caring enough about me to read all my junk.

I will end with the poem that our Big Brother shared with us at our Volunteer Appreciation Banquet.

Our Deepest Fear

by Marieann Williamson

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won't feel insecure around you.
We are all meant to shine, as children do.

We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.

And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give
other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others.

That is all. You is all nice and I like you (well, most of you)

To Maine and back

Well. It was nice to go home for Christmas. Saw a lot of awesome people and relaxed a lot more than I probably should have. Got to go to L.L. Bean twice, ate 3 cheese pazzos, 2 bags o Humpty Dumpty chips, lobster for Christmas dinner, walked down Spring Point, girls night at Margaritas, had a slice at Otto, went to christmas parties, went to 2 Tuesday night dinners, played board games and ate Chinese food for new years eve, got to go out and listen to local music multiple times. I miss it all already. But that sums up a winter break in Maine pretty well.
So I'm back in good ole Spartanburg. As of right now I wont be coming back until August, but we'll see if I can actually last that long. At work I've got alotta work ahead of me to help organize the Bowl for Kids Sake which is our biggest fundraiser of the year. And I just found out today that a week from Saturday I get to go on a field trip for work to Atlanta and go to the mlk monument, aquarium, world of coke, and eat at the Varsity! I'm very much looking forward to that.
I'll attempt to keep up with my blog by popilar demand but not much is going on down here. Stay tuned!