Corn. So much corn. I drove down separately from my youth group-- they left from Toms River after church; I worked breakfast and lunch at Johnsonburg. My route took me through the western part of New Jersey, which is pretty much all cornfields alternating with forests and cute little old towns. I spent a little bit of time in traffic on I-95 going around Philadelphia, a little bit of time navigating busy state roads around Wilmington, and spent the rest of my trip on various county and state roads through cornfields galore (well, with some soybeans sprinkled in). I basically spent the entire week in the cornbelt of the Eastern Shore. So much corn. Very relaxing.
My youth. I cannot begin to share how great my youth group is. This year we had 24 kids (and 10 adults... the ratio is not normally so absurd, but I think this may be a piece of the reason everything went so well), mostly going into 8th grade but a few going into 7th and 9th. I love this age group. They are just starting to become interesting people who you can actually have a conversation with if you're willing to overlook how obnoxious they can be. And I totally can, because underneath the snide remarks and occasional silent treatment are some really cool and good kids.
My crew. I was on a crew with another adult (a cop from North Jersey), two girls going into their freshman year, and two guys going into their junior year. Late in the week we were joined by a crew who finished early (a young pastor from New York who reminded me a lot of my older brother, a kid with ADD who would just appear everywhere you looked doing random things like taping his eyes shut, and one of my own youth boys, among others). Together we finished painting basically the entire interior of the house, and built a porch for the back door (in about a day's work, with my supervision!?). We were really excited to finish, albeit late Friday afternoon, and our resident was really excited about our work.
My youth. (Didn't she already mention this? Has she gone all crazysauce on us?) No, I mean my own personal youthful age. In real life, I'm an adult. I'm a leader for our youth group. According to Group Workcamps, I'm an adult (over 21!). However, it took some convincing to get others to acknowledge this. My youth group clearly knows it. My work crew all knew it. It took my resident about a day to figure it out (when I mentioned that I taught a college class). The site coach? Not so much. Despite the fact that I was the only one with experience building things, and was clearly acting as air traffic control on the porch process, I'd ask a question about something like the angle of the railing and he'd just kind of smile and then continue the conversation with any adult man in the area. Group Workcamps Staff? Handed me a youth camp evaluation form, and questioned me for requesting an adult leader form. I know there are some ways women can dress to appear older in the professional world, but how does one appear over the age of 16 when wearing paint-splattered t-shirts and jeans? Suggestions are MORE than welcome. I know I'll be thankful for this when I'm 40, but right now I'd just really like to look like I'm of legal age.
Ukuleles. So I bought a ukulele two weeks ago, because my friend Katie told me to. I do not regret the impulse buy even in the slightest; it's a really fun instrument and much easier than the guitar for my poor gimpy left hand to work. Katie also owned one, so we formed a sort of "band" with our friend Bailey (appropriately called Bailey and the Ukuleles by our youth) to lead youth group devotions each night. It was well received by our youth group, however, here's a curveball NO ONE SAW COMING: a youth group from HAWAII was at this work camp in Worton, Maryland! Seriously! In all my six Group Workcamps, NEVER have I met anyone from Hawaii! And so I gained my status as the 4th best ukulele player in Kent County.
Life: Past, Present, Future. Because I drove myself down solo last Sunday, I also had to drive myself back solo this morning. First of all, I thought back to my days in youth group on these trips and realize how awful it must have been for my leaders to drive back after a week of hard labor and the late nights of youth group shenanigans. At least they usually doubled up leaders to vans so they could switch off; I was pretty exhausted and this trip was way closer than any of the ones I went on as a youth. Second, my route back (which took more like 3 and a half hours) took me over the Delaware Memorial Bridge, which is how I always drove back and forth to college. Whenever I cross the bridge and see the cooling tower in Salem, NJ, I think about one particular journey to Mary Washington when my dad told me that he almost took a job with PSE&G down there (as opposed to where he has been for more than my entire life, with them in Newark, NJ). That really gets me thinking-- how different would my life be if I had grown up in Salem (or somewhere down closer to Philly or Delaware) instead of Toms River? Would I have gotten involved in a youth program like the one at PCTR? Or music? Would have I have gone to the same college, chosen the same major, gone on this awesome trip to Maryland? It's kind of strange/neat to have things in that perspective, especially as the current chapter of my life (grad school and all that has brought) is quickly drawing to a close. It seems though, that everything is working out just as it should.
Tree of the week: American Sycamore. There was a nice big one in the front yard of my worksite with a really excellent crown, meaning awesome shade for lunch and devotions every day. We had beautiful weather all week, but it was nice to sit in the shade across the street from a hay field and just relax a bit. It was also enough shade to welcome a crew from a few houses down to share devotions with us on Thursday and Friday (which the ukulele was also present for).
There's probably a million more things I could say. There's a reason I keep going on these trips (6th Group Workcamp, 9th? 10th? something like that overall mission trip). I'll stop there with the writing, but I plan to continue with my awesome adventures.
Colleen, I am glad to know you!
ReplyDeleteI think quite often about how my life would have been different had I not gone to governor's school in summer of '05. I met my college roommate there. College would have been totally different without her. What if I had decided to go on a different encounter retreat, and had never met Paul? It's amazing how even decisions that seem so small - few weeks, a weekend, a day - change everything. Life's little things are so beautiful.
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Aw, you ladies... thank you both, so much.
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