10 Things I'll Miss About You

There's something about the number 10. When you're learning to count, you often learn up to 10 first. Mostly because eleven and twelve are weird and the teens suck, or at least that's what I think about. It's also easy to count to 10, because most people have ten fingers/ten toes. Ten is a pretty decent number. 
Now there are a few things I don't like about 10. The metric system is base 10 and awesome. It WORKS. But other things aren't. A week isn't 10 days, it's 7 (why?). An hour isn't 100 minutes, it's 60. 10 minutes should be 1/10 of an hour. Just make it longer! It would make sense. Everything should function around 10's. If I were empress in ancient Greek or Roman times, I would've made that a thing. I can't do it now, no one likes someone who tries to take over the world (here's looking at you, Putin.) but it would be a great idea. 

Anyway, I've been thinking about 10 a lot. Just a couple days ago I was thinking I had 10 days left here. That suddenly got cut WAY short, but that's another story. My POC thinks I'm coming back 10 days after I leave. That's also another story, and I don't yet know the ending. 

 Anyway, I wanted to wrap up the round, since I'm leaving so soon, with 10 things I've loved about Round 2.

1. Harmony Hollow: You showed me nature, peace, love, and memories. Thanks for giving me the cutest street name I'll probably ever have the joy of being a resident of. 
2. Front Royal: Your town is quaint, cute, and your welcome signs are lovely. There's not much else here but at least you have a Starbucks. You know your priorities, and I appreciate that.
3. Rappahannock Cellars: If I had known beforehand of the magic you would introduce me to, I wouldn't have believed it.
4. Valerie Hill: The sweetest people, the best rooms, great wine, and so much love.
5.  Union Jacks: Because sometimes all you need is a good beer and a hockey game.
6. The Daily Grind: My weekly visits to this coffee shop were more than coffee, I became attached to the people, my favorite chair, and the 20 minutes of peace. 
7. Sunrises and Sunsets: Almost daily I have had the pleasure of witnessing the most gorgeous skies I've ever seen, and often I've witnessed both in one day. There's nothing here that's prettier than the sunrise over the Shenandoah Valley. Well, maybe the sunset. I'm not sure.
8. Snow: At first, the excitement of a snow day bears resemblance to what you felt as a school child, crossing your fingers in your pajamas and staying home with Mom all day. ...Until they call YOU Mom and you've been snowed in for 5 days in a row. Just kidding, it's not easy, but I have many fond memories. Thanks, team. :)
9. Lack of WiFi. Did a 20-something, internet-loving blogger just add "Lack of WiFi" to a "10 Things I Loved" list?! Yes. Yes, she did. Because limited access to the outside world taught me a whole lot about myself, people, and other ways to communicate. I learned about a few things I had been missing, and a lot about what I love.
10. Deployment Branch: Thanks for the best office environment, staff, location, and a million other positive things about this work place. You're all incredible humans.

Round two was a roller coaster. I've learned, I've grown (not physically), I've changed, I've laughed, I've cried, and I've fallen in love. This place is magical, beautiful, and amazing in more ways than I can describe.

I know I'll be back here eventually, but the real question is: Am I going to be gone for 10 days, or am I saying goodbye for 10 weeks?

I'll miss you, Virginia.

Happiness

First: At the time I logged in to write this post, this blog had 4,029 page views. HOLY CRAP. Thank you for following me and joining me through my journey. It's not over yet, so stay tuned for more.

Today, I returned from my lunch break completely fascinated by how happy I am. Now, you might think, "what's so fascinating about being happy?" but honestly, a whole lot. I've always been naturally happy, at least that's what my mom tells me, and I've been through periods in my short 23 years where I've had to step back and say, "I'm not happy, I'm not my usual self, what's wrong?" but for the most part, I just ENJOY being happy, and if I don't have anything to be upset about, then it's natural for me to just be happy. I have a rare, quiet "neutral" where I'm in the middle and content not being on one end of the spectrum, but I'd say my personal average is "happy." But I still pause and start to think, "What in the world got me here?!" because it's pretty damn awesome and I'd like to send a shout-out (think Grammy acceptance speech) for everyone and everything that contributes to this awesomeness. 

One reason why it blows me away so much is because I also have this natural thing I do called FREAK THE HELL OUT. It's triggered by stress and comes with a pile of anxiety, lack of sleep, and a feeling of "I need to call my parents for life advice." (Thanks, guys. You rock.) And normally, at a time like now, I WOULD be freaking out. I'm applying to jobs, which includes trying to figure out which city I'll be living in, and having NO IDEA where it'll take me, I'm not receiving a whole lot of response, I'm about to leave our amazing project site and the connections I've made behind, and I have no idea where Round 2 will take me or what I'll be doing (nothing scares me more than the unknown!). And if there's one thing I love, it's a plan. A solid, fool-proof plan with Plans A, B, C, and D complete with appendices for problem-solving and crisis action plans in case something goes wrong. I mean, I plan my free time for goodness' sake. So why the heck am I so comfortable and happy not having any of my plans solidified for after next Sunday? I have NO IDEA. But I think I'm at a place where I know two things:

1. It's all going to be okay.
2. If it isn't, I know I'll be able to MAKE it be okay. 

And I think that's one huge lesson I've learned in AmeriCorps. We can't plan for everything, but we can prepare ourselves for anything. And if you try hard enough, you can make anything happen. Do the best with what you've got. I've learned that here, too. We have limited everything! As long as I mentally prepare myself for the fact that I have little to zero control over what happens for my next round, and that the only control I have over securing a job for June are trying to show off my writing skills in a cover letter and my resume, know that I also have a few more months, a hell of a lot of motivation and drive, and amazing people supporting me every step of the way, then I know I'll be okay. And when it comes down to it, the more things we look at that we have to appreciate, the more things we FIND to appreciate. And the more things I think about to make me happy, I will find more things that make me happy. Even the little things. The grass might be greener on the other side, but the other side might not have the people and things I appreciate here, so I better not be in too much of a rush to get there.


Thanks for reading! We return to Mississippi for Transition on March 31st, and are scheduled to deploy to Round 3 for our next assignment. Stay tuned to find out where we go, and check out my team on our facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/heckyeahfootball. and share the blog and Facebook with your friends! Leave notes in the comments section, too!

This blog is making me carsick.

I have been dying to blog for what feels like forever. Really probably since my LAST blog post. And now I'm blogging from the 15p on my phone which will inevitably make me nauseous. I just haven't gotten around to it, we have had so much going on! Okay I need to stop, I hate making excuses for myself. I just didn't do it, okay?! Stop judging me, I see you with your judge-y face on. Put that away and read.

A lot has happened since my last post! We've made it past halfway through round 2, and we are well past halfway through the program. I'll actually be on campus in 19 days and graduating in 82 days! Time has flown by. 

We had another team come stay with us last weekend and I got the lovely company of three other team leaders. It was glorious! Our teams hiked and ate together, played music, and had lots of fun. Also, everyone on my team had a huge heart-to-heart two weeks ago when I stepped out for the day, and they all talked out their problems and hugged it out and even cried a little and it was the best thing to ever happen to them for team morale. So the past two weeks have been the happiest I've seen them all since CTI. We've had the best two weeks ever, and we're all going out for pizza tonight. 

Anyway, I try to center my blog posts around a topic but I feel like this is just so much information that I can't! Our work in the deployment branch is going so well, and I can't disclose anything else at this time but we're loving it. We're a little TOO used to it, because I want to answer every phone call I receive with "FEMA Deployment this is Allie" and every time I get introduced to someone I want to ask them to spell their name for me. Virginia is as beautiful as ever and the weather is getting to be pretty nice (except for that snow we are supposed to get Monday... Shhh!) 

I'm honestly just so happy that my team settled some of their differences. It's beautiful to get in the van and hear laughter, and work out together and hear encouraging phrases. They cook together and race to help each other clean up and do dishes. It really did happen in less than a day, they woke up that Sunday on the verge of civil war and went to bed as friends. I wish I could say I had something to do with their progress, but I think it shows a lot that someone took the initiative to start that conversation, and I don't think I ever need to know what was said that day. 

Come to think of it, one of the themes for this round is pleasant surprises. I've had so many happy, wonderful things just appear out of nowhere, and I hope that all of the bad is done and over with. I'd like to finish these last 82 days as positively as possible.