AmeriCorps Week - 2

Jeff, Tibbs, Andrea, Me, Tucker, Ellen, Kaitlin, and Jules in our fire gear.

It is AmeriCorps week!  I figure that the best way to show my support is to shed a little light on my very own AmeriCorps journey by posting photos throughout the week that mean a lot to me.

It didn't take long on the AmeriCorps search portal to figure out what service opportunity was a good fit for me.  I wanted to travel, work with a team, and try my hand at a variety of work.  The answer was the National Civilian Conservation Corps.  Without beating the details to death, NCCC is a branch of AmeriCorps for 18-24 year olds of vary backgrounds that work on a variety of project in their 10 month commitment.  In this ten months you work, live, and play 24/7 alongside your assigned team.
My team was Silver 5.  Though months have passed since we have been in one another's company, there is no denying the bond we formed during the short time we spent together.  We still phone, we still send letters, and I know that each of us has spent some time making ourselves feel sappy over old Facebook albums.  I miss them all very much to be frank - not a day goes by where I don't think of them.
My inclination that NCCC would be a exciting fit for me was a correct one.  My will to travel was certainly sated - in those ten months I lived on a WW2 Air Force base outside of Sacramento, a two bedroom apartment in Portland, Oregon, a snowed in cabin beside Yosemite National Park, and a one-hundred year old ranger house outside of Lake Tahoe.  I've seen the Desolation Wilderness, been in awe of Mount Hood, climbed one of the largest sand dunes in the world in the Mojave, hugged a Joshua Tree, had a quick trip into Washington, walked inside of a sequoia, and have taken a daring look over the top of Multnomah Falls. 
Everyday was an adventure in NCCC - even if we weren't actively embarked on an adventure.  The adventure as much dwelled in the work we accomplished and the people we were with than the locations we occupied. And boy did we work hard...I'll tell you a bit about that tomorrow.  Until then.