“…To make our people safer, smarter, and healthier.
I will bring Americans together to strengthen our communities.
Faced with apathy, I will take action.
Faced with conflict, I will seek common ground.
Faced with adversity, I will persevere.
I will carry this commitment with me this year and beyond.
I am an AmeriCorps member, and I will get things done.”
Don’t I sound patriotic? Hehe. This is the AmeriCorps NCCC pledge, and this is what the team leaders chanted on our first meeting of orientation.
I am doing orientation in Denver for a full month at Colorado Heights University. The purpose is to learn the policies and procedures, train for necessary skills (like CPR) and become a unified team. So far it has felt like a strange combination of freshman orientation and some type of military school. Like freshman year there are tons of people dropped on a campus and out to make groups of friends. It’s pretty awkward. We also live in a dorm, with terrible dorm showers…and a gross cafeteria. I have a really cool roommate though who is from St Louis, and we seem to be getting along really well. There is such a mixed group of people here. Which is totally great. There are definitely enough down to earth people around. I have already met some really great friends. Already have a little crew. Some really chill people! We usually have “class” 8-5, but after that we are done for the night and can leave or do whatever. There’s a Mexican restaurant right across from campus called “4 G’s”. It’s hilarious. It’s a place where people have been going to get there fun on. Its’ actually pretty ridiculous… It’s a brightly lit big restaurant where people go to drink. The beers are $1.50 and there are pool tables and a jukebox. Fortunately I made it to downtown Denver on Saturday night. It only takes like 15 minutes to get downtown. It’s amazing. It’s also so great to have a car here. On Sunday afternoon I just got in my car and found a café (similar to Panera) downtown to chill. I love Denver! Downtown is so chill and spacious and clean, yet definitely has a city feel to it. I’m legit living in the best of every world—city, open minded and active people, gorgeous mountain landscape, and 300+ days of sunshine a year. The only thing that’s missing is the ocean. Oh well. I have no idea why I haven’t lived here earlier. My campus is in town called Englewood (it’s still part of Denver). It’s not nearly as nice as downtown, but its still cool. The area I live in does not have any skyscrapers. It’s mostly taco places. There’s a huge Mexican influence in my neighborhood. The campus is pretty sweet. It feels like a tiny university. It’s pretty small, but there are really nice old brick buildings and a real nice quad. I really like it here.
So about the military feeling. There are just some very strict standards and policies. We have to be in uniform from 8-5 everyday, or whenever we are doing anything AmeriCorps related. Our shirts need to be tucked in, no cuffing anything, no hats besides our AmeriCorps one, only black white or grey socks, always have to wear the black belt they gave us, only black or grey headbands… basically nothing that isn’t AmeriCorps. We can get written up if our shirt isn’t tucked in. Crazy. When we are in uniform we have to act in a way that positively represents AmeriCoprs… basically no swearing or talking politics or drinking in uniform. We have had tons of meetings/classes about policies. It seems pretty repetitive. You cannot be in someone else’s room after 10pm on weekdays and after midnight on weekends. This is no sexual activity allowed on campus. But they say relationships are allowed. Hmm. I think I’m getting used to it all.
We had our first service project on Saturday. There is a community park near by that we built a trail for. Washington Park is a very large park with some ponds. There are lots of dog walkers, runners and bikers there. We restored a running trail. There were piles of gravel/dirt (I forget the name of the material) along the path. We broke up into teams and worked on a couple piles each. We used shovels to spread the dirt and then raked and compressed it down. It was tiring shoveling all of the dirt. But I had a really cool group of people with me. We were chatting the whole time so it flew by. It was great feeling sore afterwards. When I was working a woman pulled her car over and asked what organization we were. I felt an unexpected pride when I answered. It’s really cool to be a part of something with such a great reputation. It feels legit.
Today we did day 2 of driver training. We were in our 15 passenger van allllll day. Each person got a turn to practice driving. We went to some cool places along the way. We checked out the Columbine memorial. It was very eery. It was also the first overcast day we’ve had. Reading the plaques dedicated to each victim made me shiver. I recognized the area from the news and documentaries. The rest of the day was a lot more upbeat. We explored red rocks then drove up a mountain where Buffalo Bill is buried. Learned who Buffalo Bill is. Ha.
That’s a lot. Sorry guys. Right now I’m wicked pumped for a full day of driver training number 3 tomorrow. Not really. I hope everyone is doing really well. Please please please keep in touch!
Peace and love,
lily
No comments:
Post a Comment