Amanda Graced with Love: October 2013

Now that I have been a part of the "real world" for about 2 months, I can share what it has been like and what kind of transitions I've been through in all aspects of my life.

Business Life: Rough, tough stuff- at first. The past two months have had many ups and many downs with learning the ropes and figuring out priorities and what, exactly, is expected of me. Yet, I feel like I've made a few mini-accomplishments. One, I have successfully interviewed, "hired", and trained 4 new interns for Mary's Place. I have also revised/written handbooks for volunteers and interns, designed a new brochure, enlisted my friend to redesign the logo, brought in several new college groups, found a couple people to help teach ESL classes, and am in the beginning stages of starting a citizenship class for adult refugees. There is still soooo much I don't know about the refugees that I would love to know, but I know it will take time to build trust with them. Thus far, I have learned two main lessons: A. Stand up for yourself; Don't be taken advantage of by people who don't have authority over you, or even by people who do. B. If you're butting heads with a co-worker, talk it out with someone you trust to come up with another strategy of communication. Figure out what the issue really is and how best to address it.

Daniel. He is such a character... Super smart kid and very talented in soccer too.

Learning a lot in English class!

Esperance, Jackie, and Celestin. Esperance is very sweet and loving; she loves to give hugs! Jackie is the sassy kindergartener... love her, even if she is a sass. Celestin loves being responsible for things and helping out. He has been doing really well in school so far this year :)

Three of the older girls that come to Mary's Place: Salome, Nadine, and Awal. I love getting to know these girls more and more as I spend time with them!

Art day with Liz, Christina, and Bri :)

Social Life: I am very fortunate to live so close (5 min drive, 10 min bike ride) to friends still in college! On the other hand, it is mad difficult to live "far" away from best friends. Bethy, my college next door neighbor and NY sister, now lives in Syracuse with her hubby. Kels, my old roomie, lives 45 min away; Meghan lives over an hour away; and Liz just moved to Cincinnati.... There's my main cohort of friends and none of them are in close proximity, except for Christina, who's about 10 min away (which I love!). It helps that one of my current roommates went through the same social crisis last year and the other is going through it now with me. I have still managed to have fun doing weird things like square dancing with old folks, having a dance party for 3 hours in our kitchen, several game nights, many sleep overs, and much more!

Spiritual Life: This has been a bit rough, not gonna lie. For a while, I did a lot of sulking, reminiscing college and Uganda... Then I got back into being a youth leader and I recently joined a life group through church with other young adults. Both of these things have been vital to giving me the motivation to be active in my spiritual life again versus going through motions. I'm still working on perfecting my routine of making sure I set aside time to spend with Christ, but it's definitely much better. Again, my roommates have been super encouraging and we've had a few great conversations about sermons and an ABC (our names are Amanda, Bethany, and Christine, so everything has become ABC [fill in the blank: laundromat, cafe, motel, etc.]) prayer circle. They are awesome! Something Christine brought up one night that rang true to me is now that we aren't always surrounded by friends, we have to run to God with our life instead of relying on our friends to help us work things out. So true, but hard.

What I do with the leftover time in my life: Well, I've been doing a number of things when I'm not with other people or doing work related tasks. A large portion of time has been spent watching White Collar on Netflix. I have almost finished season 3 and don't know what I'll do afterward because none of the other seasons are up yet. I have also succumbed to the hot trend of Candy Crush and now waste time playing that game before I fall asleep. Bethany and I have cooking dates on Sundays, which are beautiful!! One of the highlights of my week is deciding what to make and spending a large portion of our afternoon making delicious food. So far, we've made baked ziti, fajitas, clam chowder, pork chops, and chili; everything is made from scratch! Look out world- I can cook!! I've been able to read a lot more and make it through books at a normal speed since I don't have boat loads of reading for 8 different classes. I'm even auditing ceramics at college so that I have access to studio space and can keep up with my art-making. I would like to start volunteering at least once a week somewhere local in the mornings because I don't go into work until 12pm. Where I'd like to donate my time? No idea right now.. maybe a nursing home or other non-profit, maybe I could find a gallery that needs extra help or see if the church office could use an extra hand.