Happy New Year!!
This is for Katie Hanna. Accountability.
justcallmepb asked: yes!!! i hate that tumblr doesn't have a functional comment box that i could comment on your comment lol
haha i know right… nice lady finger puppets!
Work is Good.
New Post on “From Detroit to DC”-http://detroit2dc.tumblr.com/
Basically going over how this “transition” to a job is going… and what it actually is.
The Post In Which It All Got Real. well, almost
In a week from today, I will be in DC.
In fact, at this exact moment a week from now, I will be surrounded by 19 other Emerson Fellows ending our first day of training.
How did time move so fast? It feels like just yesterday, it was March and I was in the throes of my senior year and being all angsty and annoying, freaking out over whether the CHC would offer me this opportunity. Now I’m here, months later freaking out about whether they made the right choice and if I’m up for the job. Funny how things change.
It’s not that I’m not accustomed to being away from home or challenging endeavors, but there are quite a few reasons why this new journey is psyching me out a bit more than most. Let’s delve into this a bit. For now, there are three main things that are causing me to be apprehensive, and they are as follows:
Farthest I’ve been away from home… with no safety net
I’ve been consistently living away from home for about 6 years now (going to a residential high school does that) and while I’ve been halfway around the world before, I had the support of one of my best friends and 16 other students, 4 of which I already knew, in an study abroad program ran by our school. The second time I went abroad, I went through another school program, and while I didn’t know anyone right out, I got stuck in the DC for a week (long story there) and ended up getting to know other participants and having a bit of a support system there. Plus I knew I’d be home in roughly 6 weeks, so I wasn’t too worried. This time, I’m heading about 10 hrs away from home to a place where I know ABSOLUTELY NO ONE! Sure, I’ve met my field site supervisor and field site partner over email, but that’s not the same. And while I get to have 10 days of training with 19 other fellows starting next week, I’m sort of heading out into the unknown without a partner by my side, or the crutch of my family being a short 1.5 hr drive away. While this isn’t crazy scary for most, and I consider myself to be adaptable and flexible, I can’t help but notice this will be my first time doing this.
good:
Grist posted this piece from designer Max Temkin, and we felt it was worth sharing because we’re right in the thick of our waste less 30 Day GOOD Challenge.
Take that, plastic spoons, you jerks.
(via good)
transitioning to a job...
thought i’d start from scratch with another tumblr…
From Detroit to DC: An Emerson National Hunger Fellow’s 11 Month Food Justice Journey
it’s been a long time, shouldn’t have left you…
so.. it’s shameful how i’ve been neglecting this blog. contrary to popular opinion, this isn’t an exercise in vanity, my vision is bigger than that… but just because there’s more doesn’t mean i have to delve into all that now. anywho, i think i should just do a quick recap of what’s been happening in my life for the past three weeks or so:
RA Training:imagine being thrown into a completely new situation with 21 people, most of whom you’ve never seen a day in your life, and being told that for the next ten months you’re going to be living and working with them. kind of like a weird version of the real world, except since not all of us are 21 we can’t drink, we’re allowed to have TVs, and we don’t live in the same house… just the same community. But even with those differences, eventually, people stop being nice and things start getting real. luckily, we haven’t reached that point yet, but even when we do, I have faith that we’ll weather that stage just fine. and here’s an adorable pic of us below:
but yes, ra training was a whirlwind of bonding, workshops, and craftsy things. sometimes i forget how much of the RA role is being able to make masterful works of art with construction paper, glue/tape, and some scissors. even though this is my 3rd year as an RA, that’s just a skill I have yet to master. I hope to make up for that by creating an amazing sense of community and connectedness among my residents, which should be too hard since they are 1) amazing, and 2) most of them already know each other. so basically, my job can’t get any easier. unless i was artistic, then i’d have it made in the shade. moving on.
First week of class: can i just use this space to gush about how i ABSOLUTELY LOVE ALL of my courses!!!!!! this is exciting. it’s such an amazing feeling to be excited about learning, and to do so with such amazing people. while i am excited about all my courses, the course i am just salivating over is ints 290: passport to global citizenship. this is a new course, designed to help students who are returning from doing volunteer work or research abroad to connect their global experience to their current local one. They’re providing volunteer opportunities in the areas of health (YES!), education, and social justice, and by the end we’ll have to produce a photo essay and an interview and write up with a personal hero of ours within the organization we’ll be working with. we’re also exploring issues of duty and responsibility when it comes to work abroad, and just a plethora of difficult issues that need to be discussed, but no one ever really provides a forum for them to be heard. so yeah. needless to say again, i am too excited over this class.
Being a Senior: yes. finally here. it was a long time coming, and due to my two years at the north carolina school of science and mathematics (public residential high school in nc for juniors and seniors) i really feel like i’ve been in college for six years instead of four, so i’m so ready. but oddly enough, while i am an emotional person (not outwardly so, they run deep. really really deep.) i’m not really about getting depressed or super sentimental. i believe life happens in stages, and i knew this year would come four years ago when i stepped onto unc’s campus, and now that it’s here, i feel like i’m ready for it. God prepares us for times such as these, right? i just feel like i’m meant to be here, it’s the next stage in my life, and while most are wrought with insecurity, stress, and worry, i just feel like it’s coming anyway, so let’s be happy about it. with that being said, while i’m not sentimental, i definitely want to make the most out of the area i’m living in in every way. the triangle is a special area for natural beauty, food, social justices issues and movements, music… i don’t know, there’s so much available here, and there are so many people in my vicinity that are pushing the envelope in such innovative ways, i think if anything, i may miss having so may opportunities to do amazing things and meet amazing people at my fingertips. but instead of lamenting, i plan to just keep taking advantage of it for as long as i can. so that’s how i feel about being a senior.
“Emerging Adulthood”- my friend and fellow tumblr blogger, Lauren, blogged about this NY Times article, “What is it about 20-somethings?” a few days ago in her entry “Emerging Adulthood”. and i think if you have the time, and especially if you are a “20-something” both are well worth reading, but they’re basically discussing how our generation is turning out to be vastly different from that of our parents. apparently, there are five milestones to reaching adulthood, which are as follows: completing school, moving out of your parent’s home, becoming financially independent, marrying, and having a child, and ideally, all in that order. but today, fewer and fewer people of our generation are completing this transition to adulthood in a timely manner (aka by the time you’re 30), and if you don’t believe it, the article overloads you with statistics in the first few paragraphs to prove to you that it’s so. they refer to the numerous amounts of jobs 20-somethings have (an average of 7) or how many times they move back with their parents (at least once) or how many more are living or have lived with a romantic partner, without being married. as of now, no one knows whether to blame this on society or economic changes, or the usual, our “neurological hard-wiring,” but we do know it’s a new emerging phenomena. i personally think this is something more related to economic status, or just something tied to Western culture in general (i hate using these terms, but we have to categorize since it helps us understand things more efficiently) because when i talked with 20-somethings while in guatemala, especially kaqchikel (an indigenous group in guatemala) 20-somethings… i don’t get these same vibes. and i believe that the differences between the “developed” and “developing world” are covered at the end, but the article says that our generation is more self-focused and really intent on figuring out and defining our identity, instead of our identity to our kinship group or just in relation to others, which is really Western to me in a sense, but i digress. while i think some aspects of the article accurately describe some things i am encountering (uncertainty, but this odd optimism about my potential, etc), and i’ll use the term emerging adult to describe myself,i think other aspects, especially the statistics at the beginning, make our generation seem shiftless and as if we’re roaming around without a purpose, which i don’t agree with. but this article hits on a lot of good issues about the pros and cons that we find ourselves in, and how this is affecting our parents. they’re having to pay for bills they weren’t expecting to pay, work longer, and institutions like social security, that depend on the young working and giving back to protect the older, could be in danger. this whole article to be a series of blog posts, but i just would love for people, if they have the time and actually manage to make it to this part of my entry to look up that article and give it a read. it’s good stuff.
so i think i’ve gone on long enough, i kind of dropped the blog exercise… but it may be picked back up, since it was cute. honestly though, i think being back at university and my courseload may make this blog lean more towards things outside myself (especially social justice issues related to food and health) which is something i would like to do more of anyway. that’s not to say that i won’t write personal entries, because i’m not even going to lie like that and say that i won’t, but there may be serious entries sprinkled in between. so yeah… think that’s it for today. peace.
i’m ready to do hoodrat things with my friends.
this is short and random, but i can already feel it… these things are happening this year:
1) i’m doing hoodrat things with my all my various groups of friends, since they all have different levels of hoodratness (thanks for that laterian)
2) i’m going to say something comparable to, “i’m a senior. i don’t have time for this or you,” to a few people this year
3) i’m going to awkwardly spill emotion on some poor unsuspecting person
4) i’m giving cat’s cradle a good amount of my hard earned money
5) i’m roadtrippin.
6) i’m going to have an existential crisis
7) i may actually talk to more people. maybe. i’m not quite certain of this one, but my social skills of interaction are always improving….
8) i’m going to scheme about how to go abroad again.
9) i’m going to decorate my room… it might look like a three year old did it, but it’s getting done.
10) i’m going to pick up my guitar… and learn how to play it. again.
11) i’m cooking. once at month. at a friend’s apartment. they all know who they are; we’ve made arrangements. it’s happening.
i think that’s it for now. i’ll do blog activity 6 tomorrow. woot.
Eat an Apple (Doctor’s Orders)
FINALLY. hope to see more of this in NC…yay a food movement that resonates with me and makes practical sense.
“Can we help people in low-income areas, who shop in the center of supermarkets for low-cost empty-calorie food, to shop at farmers’ markets by making fruit and vegetables more affordable?” said Gus Schumacher, the chairman of Wholesome Wave, a nonprofit group in Bridgeport, Conn., that supports family farmers and community access to locally grown produce.
If the pilot project is successful, Mr. Schumacher said, “farmers’ markets would become like a fruit and vegetable pharmacy for at-risk families.”
so… i’m back!! i ended up taking a longer break than intended because i’ve just been in the throes of RA training, which is an amazing experience… but crazy busy at the same time. but more on that later in other entries… but anywayz, let’s get back to the blog activity!!
Oh the places you will go…
Day 05: A picture of somewhere you’ve been to
This is from the Ngorogoro Crater in Tanzania, which is a UNESCO Heritage site and considered to some the “8th Wonder of the World.” It is indeed wonderful and I was able to see it on a 3 day safari while I studied in Tanzania. I don’t think any of my pictures can do it any justice, but this one was just crazy cool because of the insane amount of hippopotamuses, wildebeests, and zebras. good times.