The New Year

We had two weeks off for holiday break and so I went back to Georgia!! Of course two weeks was not long enough to fit in all the things I wanted to do and all the people I wanted to see, but it was pretty close. I could list all the details, but the highlights were hanging out with Lexie and Leigh. Olive Garden. Taco Mac with Layton, Meredith and Daniel. Relaxing a lot at my dad's house and meeting Heather. Going to the burbs with all the puppies. Rock Band 2 and World Tour with Sarah, Ashley, Brooke, and Colin. Allgood with all the same people. Sushi with all the same people. Sushi and Trapeze with Katy. New Years at Meredith's lake house playing Dutch Blitz and Pass the Pigs :) Baking. Cooking. Watching movies. All in all doing nothing but what I wanted to do. Good times.

I'm back in San Antonio now after a grueling 18+ hour drive. Some punks tried to steal my car again! But this time is was all old news. The first week back at City Year for Advanced Training Academy (ATA) started out a bit overwhelming. First of all I over slept and was late. But then we got all this information about the tons of stuff we're going to do this semester. Which is very exciting and I'm looking forward to all of it. It also makes me a bit tired just thinking about it. Here are some things I'm especially excited about. YOUNG HEROES!! You have a little background information from my last post. I'm excited to build relationships with these amazing kids I've met. I know my Saturdays as a Young Heroes Team Leader are going to be some of the best times. I'm also really looking forward to the after school program we're starting at McAuliffe called Starfish. It's a service learning program kind of like young Heroes, but not quite as intense. The units we'll be talking about with our kids are Health, Environment, and Peace & Conflict. I'm point person for the Environment unit and I'm really looking forward to that experience. I'm trying to revamp my lunch clubs. I'm hoping to have a lot more success. I'm also looking forward to Camp City Year. It's a camp we put on for kids in San Antonio over their spring break. This year it's not overnight, but it'll still be a great time with the kids. I'm also really looking forward to Cyzygy. It's our national conference where all the City Year sites come together. That's going to be amazing, especially if San Antonio gets paired up with South Africa again.

Another thing that was overwhelming about the first day back was the rolling out of Senior Corps Member applications. I want to come back and do a second year in City Year as a Team Leader. There are many reasons I feel like that experience will be extremely beneficial to me. I came into City Year telling myself that I would put 110% into the year and take advantage of all leadership opportunities. I know that being a Team Leader would teach me so much more and prepare me to take on my future endeavors with confidence and experience. I never expected City Year to be so much bigger than just a gap year… It’s introducing me to this huge movement toward Nation Service. I think City Year is doing such wonderful and amazing things. It’s a strong leader in this movement and I’m so lucky to have found this community. I know that it will be a big part of my life from here on out. The Vice President and Dean of City Year, Charlie Rose, was in San Antonio these past couple of days. He is such an inspiring individual. Someone I can really look up to and model my career in the non-profit sector after. I’m so overwhelmed (in a good way) with City Year and all the experiences I have to look forward to this semester. Last semester was hard. It was a time to grow and get acquainted with City Year life and all the ups and downs that come with it. Now that I have my feet wet I’m ready to make the plunge and not look back.

So speaking of taking a plunge. One of the other activities we did for ATA as a corps was a high ropes course. I’ve been rock climbing and rappelling, but I’ve never done a high ropes course before. Man o man was it intense. I was so proud of everyone. So many people were terrified but did it anyways. Everyone was encouraging to each other as well. The first course our group (McAuliffe, Casey, and part of the CE team) was crazy! We had to climb to the top of a ladder and then climb up a telephone pole to this platform. From there we had to walk across a cable (we had a cable above our heads to hang on to). The last part was the hardest for me. We had to walk out to the middle of this log (with nothing to hold onto) and then free fall off of it. It took me a while to let go and walk to the middle of that log. Keep in mind that all this is going on about 30 feet up in the air. The second course started the same. Climbing up a telephone pole. Then you had to walk across another cable and this time you had two cables (one on each side) to hold onto. After that you hooked up to a zip line and went on down. It was a great experience!