Sunday, September 24, 2017

Turning 25 in England!

It's totally weird not to be home for birthday, possibly because I'm still the spoiled youngest child who gets treated like a birthday queen! I've had dinner with my family (usually spaghetti cooked by my dad) almost every year and we mark the turning of the clock to 5:55 pm. I got to see my wonderful cousin Erin, which was totally cool, and she treated me like a birthday queen. But I still feel a little sad not being in Baltimore for the actual day itself. I'm still a homebody at heart, as if you hadn't already known that!

BUT it's also totally amazing to think that a goal I set for myself years and years ago is being realized during my 25th year on earth. My goal to live in another country (for at least a year - that was a stipulation) is actually happening, and it just is amazing to me sometimes that it's happening in England, which has totally been a childhood obsession. I feel very, very blessed, and so while I'm sad not to be around my family tomorrow, I'm also grateful for the cool opportunity to be here in York, and grateful for the amount of support I have from those I love. It's bittersweet.

I'll turn 25 on September 25th, which makes this my Golden Year (as a Golden)! And 25 is five multiples of five, which is my lucky number, because I was born at 5:55 pm 25 years ago tomorrow. Fives, as you can tell, have a special place in my heart, and I am hoping this year is beautiful and special too.

Here are my resolutions for my 25th year:


1. Have more fun.


2. Live in the present!


3. Practice kindness to myself and others


4. Improve my mental health + share my story


5. Read good books, salsa dance, and play piano

More about these:

1. I tend to live a life of "shoulds" - I should be doing this, that, etc - and since I'm a Type-A doer, I always end up doing what I say I should. I should get this email sent, I should apply to this opportunity, I should run this errand. Even fun stuff turns into "shoulds". I should cook this healthy things for dinner, I should go for a run. That's such a BORING and annoying way to live. This year, I want to have more fun and let go of the shoulds. There's only one SHOULD for this year: I SHOULD have more fun.

2. I'm living in England. How cool is that?! It's sooo cool! And I so want to enjoy it. I want to grow and serve others and help my community. York is amazing but it also has a lot of need. I want to love all that there is to love about my new adopted home, to learn about ways to make the world better. And when I look back, I don't want to realize I spent more time worrying about the future or past, or checking my phone, or thinking about my life beyond this place. All that will come when it comes. I want to spend this year enjoying York, getting to know my host community, and serving those in need.

3. I like to think I'm a fairly nice person, but I also can be impatient, judgmental, and rude, which makes others unhappy. I do this even to the people I love most in the world. And I just had an epiphany recently that I'm also really judgmental of myself, sometimes constantly throughout the day. It's exhausting and unpleasant to always have a stream of negative self-talk and after my lightbulb moment, I thought, why do I worry so much about being kind to people if I'm not kind to myself too? I don't want to carry mean thoughts with me for the next 25 years! I want others to be happy because of me, and I want to be happy! This year, I'm working on being kinder to myself and to others - for me, for you, for all those I love.

4. Mental health is just like physical health - it is always a work in progress. I feel the need to work harder at sitting with my uncomfortable, anxious thoughts and pulling myself out of the rabbit hole that is my worried mind. I plan to read, meditate, talk to people (maybe a therapist if that's in the cards for this year realistically), and practice yoga, all of which soothe my soul. I also want to share more about my mental health journey. I've been journaling a lot about that in the hopes that will coalesce into a piece that will be shareable. Because of my recent experiences with Peace Corps, I really want everyone to know how important it is to be open and to de-stigmatize mental health struggles. 

On a personal level, I'm so grateful to have the resources I need to live a happier life - I feel grateful every day for my privilege of being able to see a therapist, talk to friends and family, and do whatever it is I need to feel better. It truly has improved my quality of life beyond all measure! Because of this. it's become really important to me that everyone has the opportunity to get the help they need and to know their mental health is as important as their physical health, and this is one of the foundation reasons I want to be a social worker. I plan to share more of my story and it is one my most impassioned goals in life that everyone, all over the globe, gets the mental health care they need.

5. I love to read - this year I'm not going to read the boring stuff I "should" but all the awesome books I love - historical fiction, detective stories, books about food and social justice, and children's literature. I love to salsa dance, it's my new favorite hobby (after yoga) after I took a crazy fun class this summer. And I love music and have always wanted to re-learn how to play the piano. Time for hobbies and FUN stuff. As I grow in my ability to serve others, it's time to grow in my ability to serve my soul. And my soul loves music, good books, and dancing!

If you want to do give me a birthday present from afar, send me (by email, message, text) five things. This can be five things about you, five reasons you're happy today, five foods you love, five things that are most important to you, five memories you have of us together - anything! I want an excuse to hear from the people I love and I want to know what five things are important to YOU!


On my mind....
My family! Many of whom sent me gifts or have already started hyping up my birthday. I love you all!!

Tuesday, September 12, 2017

September Newsletter!

After much back and forth with Mailchimp, my newsletter is finally out! Check it out here: http://mailchi.mp/13c09175b341/harry-potter-and-the-year-in-york

And sign up for future newsletters here! http://eepurl.com/c15iSn

Friday, September 8, 2017

Orientation, Round 2!

Hello! It's only been a little over a week since I last updated the blog but it feels like a lifetime. Lots has happened, both on a global scale and on a personal level. After officially starting work on the 30th, I worked a few hours over the next several days and continued to meet Yorkians and settle in.

On September 4th, I left York and hopped on a train to make my way to Leeds. Once in Leeds, I met up with some fellow YAGMs and we took a short metro ride into Headingly, which is a neighborhood outside of Leeds. Once in Headingly, we got ourselves hopelessly lost and then finally found our way to the  Leeds Beckett University.


Why did I get to spend four days on this idyllic campus? This was Orientation, Round 2! UK YAGMs are unique in our country structure. Most other country programs (i.e. Rwanda, Senegal, Jerusalem/West Bank, etc) have a country connection with the Lutheran church of that nation. Therefore they spend the first 3-4 weeks in-country with their fellow YAGMs learning the language and adjusting the culture.


In the UK, however, which was the first country program of YAGM, we are connected with a Christian volunteering program called Time for God. This program places volunteers from all over the world into the UK to volunteer, and places UK volunteers in other countries. Most placements are churches or faith-based nonprofits, but any organization can apply for a volunteer. Us YAGMs start at our sites right away, and then meet later on for a 3-4 day orientation with Time for God and the other volunteers in the program.

A note on Time for God: 

When I initially learned of the connection to Time for God, I was nervous because the name sounds more evangelical and Christian-focused than I knew YAGM to be. I'm a Christian, that's not what makes me nervous. But if you know me at all, you know I hate the idea of telling anyone what to believe in terms of religion (although I'm very happy to get on my soapbox if you don't agree with me politically or on social justice matters). I was worried that Time for God, by virtue of its name, emphasized "spreading the good news" and all that... stuff.

It doesn't. Time for God is a pretty charismatic Christian group, meaning they worship in a more contemporary style (whereas many of my fellow YAGM and I are more familiar/comfortable with the traditional style of the ELCA), but they are not in the business of telling others what to believe. They just believe in their volunteers serving in a faith-based context and using their volunteer time to explore their faith and grow their relationship with God.

................................


So anyway, the Orientation was a lot of fun and very refreshing. I felt nervous about leaving York as I was just settling in, but getting away was actually really good for me to remind myself of the big picture of volunteering this year. TFG Orientation started with an intro session on Monday night and then had dinner together. Our seats were assigned, which ruined The Plan. The Plan was that the YAGM volunteers would all hang out with  each other as much as humanly possible over the four days in Leeds (we like each other a lot, ok?). We didn't think we'd care about being friends with the other volunteers, who hail from Germany, Austria, Hungary, Uganda, and South Korea.

In fact, having seats assigned for dinner was a great ice-breaker. We surprised ourselves by ending up making great friends with the other volunteers from all over the world almost immediately. There were only 28 volunteers total. Thus The Plan changed and grew to include the entire group, and this made Orientation a fantastic and rich experience. I chatted with my new German friends about public transportation in Germany, a new Hungarian friend about British history, and a friend from Uganda about his job as a radio announcer at home. It was so cool!

We had several informational sessions on Tuesday. During our break, I walked with Alison, Annie, and Jasmine, three fellow YAGMs, to Kirkstall Abbey. This is an amazing old ruined abbey in a beautiful park. It was a long walk but so worth it!


Luckily, this picture is blurry so you can't see the "No Climbing on the Ruins" sign to the right.





Wednesday was the most fun day. On this day, in our small groups, we went out into the city of Leeds and had a treasure hunt! My small group was pretty multi-national - two Germans, a Ugandan, two Hungarians, and me. I LOVED small group, we had a lot of fun together and had a really successful hunt.

We had to take pictures at various structures around Leeds.


A giant chess board where we posed as chess pieces (outside the visitor information center!)
The first Marks and Spencer stall, located in Kirkgate Market! It opened in 1884. 


We were requested to take a photo with any willing strangers in the Leeds Corn Exchange... we did indeed make friends!

The Leeds Corn Exchange building! So beautiful. 

Wednesday we did skits in our small groups on a facet of British culture. Ours was food. We served tea and had a quiz show asking the others to guess what dish we were cluing them into. Can you guess my quiz?:

1. It's a dairy product
2. It's often used with jam and scones
3. It's made with a process of heating and cooling

(Shantonu, I hope you're getting this!)

For the answer, see the end of this post :)

On Thursday, we all said goodbye to our new friends and headed home. Although we definitely hadn't succeeded in The Plan, I think we were all quite happy with the new relationships we had formed and were excited to get to know such great people from all over the world. We also did get to spend more time together as a YAGM group (and can't wait for October when we'll ALL get to be together!). One of my favorite parts of Orientation was learning more about the other volunteers' home countries and talking about current events while hearing their perspectives'.

Shoutouts: 

To the Dreamers. There's a lot of heavy stuff I could say about that, but instead I'll leave you with something light...

Image result for illegal immigration american indian meme

BTW, if you've signed up for my newsletter, it's still in progress... I'm having some very frustrating technical difficulties with Mailchimp. Even though I finished it over a week ago, Mailchimp won't let me send it because of some compliance issue. I'm giving them three more days to get back to me and then I'll send it out another way (that is TBD...).

Quiz answer: Clotted cream (This is mine and Shantonu's favorite British food!)