Life After Graduation as of Oct. 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.

Baked Ziti!

Fajitas with alll the toppings! :)

Clam chowder!

There is so much left to be learned, luckily I have many years to learn it...

Mary's Place and My New Home

My first week of "serving" (since I'm a glorified volunteer) is almost over!  I really like what is happening at my site, Mary's Place.  (Check out their website when you get a chance: http://www.marysplaceoutreach.org/mpo/ )  They help refugees that have been placed in the area by offering free ESL classes, food and clothing donations, and after-school tutoring, among other things.  Kathy first started the non-profit organization in 2009 and it has been growing ever since.  People are coming and going as they have received the knowledge they need to make a living in the US and more people are being relocated to the area all the time.

God really had my back on this one I think!  After applying to Rochester Youth Year, the program I am under within AmeriCorps, I was wait-listed. Crushed, I started to look for other similar opportunities in the Rochester area, one in particular was working at Nativity Prep School in the city.  Two days before I was going to leave for Uganda, I received a call from the Roberts Dean of Student Life, Brenda.  She said there was a very important email I needed to check before I left for my trip......

I was accepted!  I was so excited, but I was quickly hit with all the emotions and wonderful people of Uganda.  All through the rest of summer, training, up until I actually got to Mary's Place, I periodically felt like I had made the wrong choice because this had almost nothing to do with anything God has placed on my heart. SURPRISEEEE!

My dream to open and run my own arts community center had been my main motivation to gain experience in the non-profit world (I also wasn't quite ready for my own classroom yet).  But beyond gaining knowledge about non-profits, I have also put to use things I learned from my trip to Uganda.  Mary's Place serves many different types of people including Burmese, Nepali, and Africans from Congo, Zambia, and South Sudan.  I have been able to share my love for chapatti and samosa (pastry type things with vegetables inside) with them.  We talked about different languages and all kinds of things.  Its a slightly Americanized version of Africa in the US.  WHile the circumstances that brought these people to the US aren't any where near the best, I love it!

I am stoked to learn more about the Burmese and Nepali, too!  I am already planning awareness nights and food sharing events in my head, as well as marketing tools and ways to improve the programs already in place.

On a different note, I LOVE LOVE LOVE the house I moved into with fellow Roberts grads!  My housemates are Christine and Bethany, both are nurses and have a great love for the outdoors.  Mom and Corey came up for my day off this week to help me get organized and bring some odds and ends up.  I now have a dresser and mattress! (I'd been sleeping on the floor until Wednesday)  My mother has OCD and felt the need to clean every square inch of the 1.5 bathrooms in the house... Thanks, Mom! :)

Another Adventure Begins

Today, I left VA after being home for a measly 5 weeks of working non-stop.  I arrived in Philadelphia, PA only 2 hours early....

Why Philly??  Well, I officially start my year of service in the AmeriCorps program today.  I will be serving refugees in Rochester through Rochester Youth Year.  There are TONS of other Vistas (our title within AmeriCorps) here from all over.  My roommate for the next few days just got in from CA and a couple other people I met are from NYC serving in the Bronx.

Now, to kill 2 1/2 hours...