I’m done!

Saturday, August 16th. Nearly Sunday, but whatevs.

Raise your hand if you completed 10 1/2 months, and over 1700 hours worth of service today. You probably can’t see, but I’m definitely raising my dang hand. I’ve been in San Jose since the beginning of October–a long road that ended with, Friday, a glowing review from my supervisors (a negative being that I have a really good brain and need to tell people my opinions more, because others can really benefit from what I have to say) and cleaning out my office, and today, planting 4 trees with 2 of my Americorps teammates. Then it was out to lunch with 2 of my favorite girls here, back to the office to make sure the databasing was completed for the plantings we did today, and ending with our arborist looking like he was going to cry and asking me for a hug. I also had to turn in my work phone and parking permit, which was very strange.

The arborist where I work has dealt with a lot of rude and immature AmeriCorps members, so was pleasantly surprised when Karoline and I told him that we are both going on to do other AmeriCorps programs. We’re "die hard", which I guess is a pretty big compliment from him. He also said that, because the next program I’m starting begins September 15th, I’m not giving myself a break. That’s right, I don’t like breaks. I’m actually pretty motivated considering how much I procrastinate and avoid certain responsibilities. I always feel like every new thing I do has to be better than the last. And I actually really like service (even though it’s really, really hard sometimes), and don’t understand why people would enroll in these programs if they want the world to revolve around them the whole time. The rudeness I saw some members direct toward staff today was just ridiculous and kindof sickening. How immature can you be, really? It’s stuff I can’t really explain because you would have to have been there, but I’ll just say that a lot of it came from Ian. A lot of times he reminds me of a middle schooler with the way he acts. But oh well, no sense being negative.

I feel like I did when I moved out of my college dorm. There’s a strange sense of melancholy, nostalgia and vulnerability that goes along with that that’s hard to describe.

So I will be moving next week. I need to pack up, get my funds in order, clean out my car (if you know me, you know this is a big job), and make sure my life is wrapped up neatly so I can head out. Renee arrives Thursday morning, graduation is Saturday morning. It’s all coming quickly but I still feel like there is time to procrastinate.

Anyway, my hands hurt from all the plantings today so I should probably stop typing.