This entry is pretty long, but my intention is that at its end, you should be familiar enough with my writing to decide whether or not you would like to continue reading my blog. Future entries should have links, pictures, videos and other fun stuff like that. So be patient, and if you're uninterested by the end, then read no more - no questions asked!
On October 6, I will leave on a 10-month adventure to serve with AmeriCorps NCCC! I will most likely be flying out of O'Hare Airport and making a few stops (where we pick up more members) until I arrive in Sacramento. There I will begin a month-long training program. After that, my team and I, along with all other project teams, will be in full throttle, serving communities all across the United States.
Many members have been talking with each other online; everyone there is EXTREMELY excited to get out west, which is great. I like how fearless everyone is, even though we're preparing to leave our homes and migrate west to do unknown jobs at unknown locations for an entire 10 months. Some members (about 1/3 of them) are just out of high school, so they haven't even experienced going away to college.
So some of you may be wondering why I've chosen to enlist in AmeriCorps NCCC. I suppose I will provide a list of my reasons for joining, in no particular order:
1) Adventure: At Wisconsin - Madison I majored in Engineering Mechanics and Astronautics. I really enjoyed the things I learned at UW, especially once I got into the classes specific to my major. However, I have since decided that, at least at this point, I don't want to be a practicing engineer. During my four years at UW, a very large of my time was devoted to course work. My last year, especially, was pretty overbearing. EMA at UW is clearly a program that, without extensive AP credits, is better fit for a five-year plan. I would estimate, without exaggeration, that I pulled at least 20 all-nighters during my final semester alone. I spent most of my days inside of computer labs. Before the semester, I was involved in as many as eight student organizations. As much as I tried to fight it, that number was decreased to two, just because of time constraints. At least for the next year, I desperately want to escape from the computer labs and power lectures and get outdoors and do some manual work. I'm typically not a quote person, but this one seems too appropriate: "The cure for anything is salt water - sweat, tears, or the sea." -Isak Dinesen
2) Society: This part's simple. I consider myself a pretty lucky person. The vast majority of people don't have what I have. I just want to go ahead and help people for a while.
3) Travel: I guess this goes along with "Adventure". I'm excited to go to live in new, unknown places and become familiar with their people and cultures. The great thing about AmeriCorps NCCC is that when you go on spike (live off-campus for a project) you are not a tourist at your community. You are treated as part of the community because your work and your ambition generate respect (or at least this is the impression I've gotten from reading other AmeriCorps blogs).
4) Experience: So all of these categories are closely-related. Whatever. I think that AmeriCorps NCCC will make me a stronger person. I will need to be very flexible, as I will be living in a variety of living conditions (for example, one team spent two months living in tents and showering in outhouses on the gulf coast, and then they spent another two months living in university apartments in Seattle where they had fireplaces, balconies, and their own rooms). Also, I will be doing tons of manual labor, and I hope that the 14-hour days of construction and 5:30 AM physical training will give me more strength and stamina. I anticipate the most difficult part will be if I get assigned to a project that I don't like. I feel like I would be happy with nearly everything, but I have heard of occasional projects that are entirely office jobs, and that would probably disappoint me.
5) Time: When I'm not working (at night), I will have free time. The work days are very long and I will often be working more than five days per week, but when we're done, we're done (unlike school). I plan on using this time to do creative things that I haven't been able to work on previously.
6) Fun: All of the other AmeriCorps NCCC members will be approximately my age (18-24). I will be assigned to a team of 10-12 people, and will spend most of the time working on projects and living with them. In addition to my team, I will be spending a lot of time with other members during training, transitions, and if we're on spike in the same city. During breaks or weekends, NCCC members tend to take trips together - they like to go everywhere from major cities to remote campsites. Most previous members say that they had a great time with other members.
7) Career: I'm not entirely certain about this, but it seems like AmeriCorps will be a good experience for the specific things I'm trying to accomplish. At the moment, it looks like I will be pursuing law or public policy/service in the future (although who knows - this could change), and I think AmeriCorps will be very applicable in that respect.
8) Influence: Ideally, my experiences in AmeriCorps will inspire other people to work for AmeriCorps or in community service in general. Say I convince three people to join AmeriCorps programs... That's accomplishing three times the amount of work that I'm doing alone, and from much less effort (let's be blissfully ignorant and forget that those people need to be accepted to and funded by the program and complete their year of service, among other things)!
So if any of this sounds intriguing to you, please make sure that you're on my list of people whom I will send updates to. You can do this by e-mailing me or leaving a comment on here with your e-mail address included. Also, feel free to tell other people about my blog if you think they might be interested. I would like to build a good readership (see #8 above).
This will probably be my only entry from Good Ol' Chicago. Until I leave I will be studying for the LSATs. Expect my next one to be from Sunny Sacramento, with incredible and inspiring tales of insurance and direct-deposit forms!
-Scott
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