I can’t believe it’s already October, and I’m just writing my first entry! To be fair, I started a little later than everyone else, but I’ve still been working for about six weeks now, so that’s not much of an excuse. As you might be able to guess, my work at Holy Cross is off to a very busy start. During the first two weeks, my term of service overlapped with that of the outgoing MACC AmeriCorps*
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Meet MACC AmeriCorps*VISTA Lauren Buckley!
How interesting, I wrote my last entry on a Friday afternoon and this one is as well. My anticipation of fall is growing. I’m ready for wet rainy days (Alfie may be a little unhappy about this), the smell of Earth, and decaying leaves. Fall should be depressing, right? For me though it isn’t. Take instance the other day I found myself rejoicing over my first “chill moment”. You know the first gust that creates a chilly feeling going straight up your back or causes those microscopic hairs on your arms to stiff up. After this you know the onslaught of fall has arrived. Fall creates an awe effect with its brilliant colors.
This 40 hour a week gig is cool, let me tell you. I’ve never had a job where I could listen to National Public Radio without disturbing someone else. This setup affords me the ability to listen to This American Life, a radio program produced by Ira Glass, as long as I want. The program records daily life of American’s and tells their stories, the idea is quite intriguing. Glass coaches me through the day at times. This past week was the 388th episode and called Rest Stop it has a pretty cool premise: stick five producers at a rest stop in
Jay Helmer, the MACC AmeriCorps*VISTA of Salem State College, and I took a trip two weeks ago to Rhode Island, the ocean state, to visit Rhode Island Campus Compact AmeriCorps*VISTAs for a recap of life and a small shin dig, along the way I brought a weekly newspaper called The Boston Phoenix. I’ve now grown an obsession with this rag of a weekly newspaper which stems from its writers. The writing is beaming with witty writers who’re given the opportunity to write in-depth articles, something that daily’s can’t afford. The paper is very informative giving insight to life in
So, today is a national day of service in remembrance of September 11, 2009. Here at
I’ve started to be a little bit more laid back on finding out the needs of the community to focus a little bit of attention on recruiting students, building the leadership aspect of my work plan. You could say I’m multitasking or branching out of what I’ve been trying to do for the past month. Community organizing is not easy, building a leadership institute is not easy; higher education is not like it was as a student that’s for sure. One thing I’ve grasped is slowing down. It’s not like I can take out a wand and make it happen; even though Harry Potter could make it happen with a swoosh of his wand. Until next time!
Peace
Good day all,
In the couple of weeks since my last blog post, I’ve started to settle into my role at
Classes have started, and students are back, which makes the campus buzz with so much more energy. Student clubs are starting to ask me about getting more involved in service, which is both exciting and encouraging as I begin to talk with community-based organizations about how
I’m starting to feel more at home living in
Jay H