Every last Monday of the month, a couple of us from my home church volunteer at Food For Lane County which is an organization that gets food donations from surrounding restaurants, cafeterias, and businesses from all over the county. I absolutely love volunteering here. You meet some pretty cool people, and it's actually really fun! When you arrive you have to sign in, wash your hands, and put on an apron. I love any excuse to wear an apron. I don't know why I have a thing for them, but I do :) There are dozens of carts full of food items that need to be packaged into smaller containers that will feed families of four. There are people that get the bags ready, pack the food, and then people who write out labels for the packages. Tonight my duty was labeling which I love! There are several categories that the food is separated into and put into crates where it is then put into the freezer.
As you can probably tell from my other posts, I absolutely adore elderly couples! I think they are so stinkin' cute :) Well there is another elderly couple that I absolutely adore who volunteers the same time as me. I don't remember their names because I didn't get to talk to them today, and I met them probably 5 months ago, but they must be in their mid 80's. They are absolute sweethearts. They come out to volunteer together every week. Isn't that the coolest? I hope that my future husband and I do the same someday.
After we finished packaging all of the food items, it was time to sort the onions! Oh my! I've never seen so many rotten onions. We were given crates of them, and we had to decide whether they were salvageable and peel away the bad parts, or decide that they were too far-gone. I did cry a bit. Too bad I didn't have any onion goggles. Those would have been handy!
At the end, Dan who is head of the organization took some of us outside to the back of the building to look at their compost piles. Super cool! When I have my own house and garden I definitely want to start one. Back by the compost piles we saw a deer. It was probably only 10 feet away from us. Surprisingly it wasn't scared of us at all, and continued to eat grass even while we moved around. Once we came back in we had dessert. Food For Lane County doesn't give away dessert items, so any donations of dessert go to the volunteers who are helping :) Score! Tonight there were rice krispy treats and brownies. Yum!
Today has been both good, and frustrating. Registering for LCC has been extremely complicated and confusing. I've had to re-apply twice now, and they still aren't allowing me to register. The orientation class that I have to take before I can sign up to be in my CNA class is filling up, but since they keep miss communicating with me, I'm still unable to sign up which creates a dilemma. Hopefully they will have everything figured out by Wednesday. Another issue is that I can't sign up for my CNA class until the 15th of June. The class starts the 21st and I am afraid that I won't get in. My mom keeps telling me to stop stressing myself out about it. She says if I don't get in then I'll just take the class fall term, which is ok, but I wanted to do it this summer. If I don't get into my class, hopefully I will be able to take some of the classes I need to take this summer instead of the fall. We'll see. For now I just need to calm down and trust that everything will work out how it is supposed to.
Tomorrow I am going to call the college in Colorado that I am going to apply to, and learn more about their nursing program and see if I am on track. I'm pretty sure I only have Microbiology left, and I am going to re-take anatomy 1 and 2 and try to get an A. I also need to contact the school in Idaho that I plan to apply to and see if I am on track for applying there as well.
Today my mom booked my airline tickets! Idaho here I come :) I am so excited to get to spend a week with one of my favorite people in the whole world. My sister Jen is somebody that I look up to a lot. Her poise, grace, intelligence, encouragement, and loving spirit just amazes me. I don't ever remember a time where Jen and I fought. We've always had a close relationship, and an even closer one now that we have both grown up. I wish that I could see her more than every 6 months. The last time that I saw her was at Thanksgiving. That is why I wouldn't mind going to nursing school in Idaho. I would be living in the same town as her for once :). I am also excited to get to spend more time with my brother-in-law Jake, and of course their yellow lab, Samson. I love him!
My flight leaves June 1st at 3:05 pm to the land of potatoes, and I will be returning June 8th at 11:20 am. One thing you may or may not know about me is that I absolutely LOVE flying! If nursing doesn’t work out, I would seriously consider becoming a flight attendant. Airports fascinate me. I love watching the people. I always want to know where they are going, and where they have been in life. I have also always secretly hoped that I would run into a famous person while at the airport. Seeing Chris Martin or Guy Berryman would be just swell :).
Tomorrow I am getting my bangs cut and styled. I am way long overdue. My bangs are OUT OF CONTROL! Lately I have just been pinning them back because they are not cooperating. I am going to go for a different style than I have done in the past so I am a little wary, but excited. I don't know how to explain it, so I'll just have to post a picture. I am also going to skype with Miss Alicia Jean Keithley at 4:00 pm :D I suggested that we skype at 5, and she agreed. Luckily she reminded me that she is an hour ahead. I totally spaced that fact. I would have been late to our skype date haha. We have texted a lot since school got out, but we have yet to have a long conversation, so tomorrow we are going to catch up and it is going to be wonderful! While I am in Idaho, hopefully Alicia will make it down to Boise one day and we can hang out. After we skype, I am going to go to my church's college group which will be nice. I have been lacking in spending time with God lately. That needs to change.
This last week I was up in Newberg, and it was so wonderful! I got to spend time with and see some more of my favorite people; Margaret, Karina, Nick, Brandon, Heather, Carter, Lissa, and Mandee! Coming back to Newberg and helping out with Genesis reminded me of how much I love Fox and kind of rekindled my sadness of leaving such an amazing place. The students would ask me what year I was, and I told them that I was going to be a Junior at Fox, although it was not true. I just decided that instead of having to go through and explain the long story of why I am leaving fox, it would be easier just to not tell people.
So much of my life is up in Newberg, and it is hard to adjust to living back where I grew up, and not by my close friends. I just keep reminding myself that my goal in life is to become a Nurse, and in order for me to accomplish that goal I am going in the direction that will get me there. I also remind myself that in two years I would have experienced the same separation from my close friends. I am just going through the transition a little earlier. I also realize how my leaving Fox also affects the lives of my friends. Not only am I adjusting, but they have to adjust as well. No longer will they get to see me on a daily basis, but what is good is that I am only a short car ride and phone call away. I still want to be a big part of their lives, as will they always be a big part of mine.
This whole past year I have been praying to God asking him to direct me and show me the path to take, and he delivered. My last semester at Fox was by far the hardest one, and I’ve come to realize that God has something else in store. Although I love Fox so much, I feel that he is leading me in another direction to a whole new adventure. I wasn't feeling like Fox's nursing program was the right fit for me. I just couldn't see myself there, which surprised me since it had been my plan ever since my sophomore year of High School. I'm still unsure of where God's leading me, but I have complete faith that whatever it is, it is going to be awesome. Maybe he will take me to Colorado, or Idaho, or maybe he's got something entirely different in mind. For now, I am here in Eugene, listening and waiting and being present, here and now. I pray to God everyday that he will bring me a community of people here in Eugene that I can grow close with, I haven't found them yet, but I know they are here. I
just need to discover them!
Oh life... you are harder than I ever imagined. Sometimes I think to myself, “you’re an adult, when did that happen?” It sure sneaks up on you!
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