And So It Begins

California awaits, it is 11:18pm the night before my flight to San Francisco and I am hanging out in a hotel near the Orlando Airport. It’s hard to believe that this is all really happening. I talked to Patrick today; he is my team leader for the first couple of weeks, until we are placed on our real teams. I told him that I was a fatty and that I was nervous about baseline, and he told me that I could walk the whole thing if I really wanted to. Actually, first he told me that I had to run the mile and a half in under 10 minutes. What a jokester. I’m of course not going to walk the whole thing. I really wish I were in shape enough to try out for the fuel reduction team. Walking three miles in under 45 minutes isn’t a problem. The problem is adding 45 pounds of weight to my body, and then walking that far. Patrick seemed really cool, and from the looks of it everyone seems to have similar desires despite coming from all walks of life. My nerves are starting to be replaced by excitement, but it has put me in this state of annoyance anytime someone brings up potential problems. It could be that, my mom hasn’t stopped asking me questions since last Wednesday, or it could be that every time I think abut these potential hazards on my journey the fear strikes me again.

I am very fortunate to keep having one good thing after another happen for me. It’s been kind of awesome, but I feel like it’s unfair to the people around me. It seems as though every time I hear good news, someone close to me gets horrible news. It’s weird how life works sometimes, but I’m trying to go with the flow. Especially since I will be expected to do that over the next year. We won’t know our first spike project site until about a week or two before we go. Of course they train us before each project but it’s still crazy that over the next year I will be traveling across the west coast and I can’t tell you where I will be. This is a thrilling sense of adventure but it makes it hard to plan, and I am a planner. I think over all this whole experience will be great for me.

The whole purpose of the NCCC is to help communities in need while training leaders. I like the way that the program works two fold. Not only do communities across the country benefit from our efforts but the Corps members benefit from an experience they couldn’t get anywhere else. There will be a lot of training and workshops that I will have to attend and I will also have to take part in presentations with my team after each project. It’s great practice for the work force.

I need to get some sleep seeing as my adventure starts early tomorrow morning. I’m hoping to be able to write often even if I won’t always be able to post right away.