Looking Back: 2013 Holidays

While chillin' in my PJs, feeling sorry for everyone who was out Black Friday shopping, I came to a pretty weird realization: I have not spent a holiday at home since New Year's. That means every holiday of 2013 (excluding this upcoming Christmas... but give me a break, it's 6 days from 2014!) has been in an entirely new situation doing entirely new things.

Thanks to iPhoto and my penchant for pics, I can look up what I did for every major holiday. Ready for a blast from the past?

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day

This isn't my best example... MLK Day was actually on 1/21 (you can see from the screenshot on the left that I made this collage on 1/23). BUT it pretty much sums up my point. MLK Day was freeeeeeezing and I was feeling a little jealous of my hometown's weather (the picture on the right). Since Coe had the day off, I cozied up with my blanket and did some homework for a while. Later that night, I braved the cold and went to a showing of a documentary that highlighted issues of race within United States society, even 50 years after MLK. Talk about mind-blowing! It made me that much more passionate about securing equal rights for all, not just in words but in actions.

Valentine's Day

This lovely note left on my door was the courtesy of my friend Leeann. She's a total sweetheart, and she obviously knows me well. Every day at the end of Honors Composition class, I would struggle for a solid 30 seconds to put on, button, and buckle my coat. Let's just say motor skills aren't my forte. My truest loves at college are the friends who know my weaknesses and think I am the bomb dot com anyway. What a great Valentine's Day.

St. Patrick's Day

L to R: Sara, Kristen, Sam, me, Alexis, and Kobe

I was eating a bowl of Lucky Charms in honor of the occasion when a bunch of friends came into the Writing Center and said, "We HAVE to go get Shamrock Shakes!" I also had a choir performance in an hour. So because of course the best decision is to take your chances getting to the performance on time AND destroy any chance of singing well with lactose-throat-coat, I said, "Ok, cool." I made it to the show on time (c'mon, I'm not THAT irresponsible) and had a darn good St. Patty's Day to show for it. The best part by far was Sara yelling out the car window, "HAPPY ST. PATRICK'S DAY!!!" to every pedestrian she saw.

Easter 

This Easter actually wasn't very fun at all. A really awesome person and a good friend died 2 days before Easter this year. My friend Sam and I were at Leeann's house for the weekend, excited for home-cooked meals and some time off campus. I got a heartbreaking phone call on Saturday morning telling me about Joel's death. Saturday was filled with more tears than I thought I had. Sunday, we dyed a few eggs and even went on Leeann's family's annual Easter egg hunt to try to distract ourselves. It hurt so much, but I was beyond appreciative for the support and care of my friends and classmates. Rest in peace, Joel... I am so glad I had the chance to know you.

Arbor Day

James and I leaving for Sinfonia formal!

A Ha(y)(i)l(l)e(e)(ey) sandwich: Haylee on the left and Hailley on the right!

If you ask me, Arbor Day is pretty awesome... so I'm going to include it. We were about a week away from finals and things were getting crazy. I submitted a paper 10 minutes before leaving for the Greek fraternity Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia's Formal with my friend James. The night was so much fun! We went bowling and laser tagging in our fancy get-ups, then we went to dinner at a nice Italian restaurant. The boys serenaded us with a beautiful song at the end of dinner. James was an absolute gentleman all night. I also got to see my Mama Duck Hailley for the first time since the previous semester, since she was in New York City for the spring. Good bowling, good food, good music, good friends... just what I needed to make it through the following week of finals.

Memorial Day

 

On Memorial Day, I wasn't even in the country. I was in Paris! You can read more about that adventure here. May 27 was our second-to-last full day in the City of Lights. Leeann and I visited Notre Dame and serendipitously made it just in time for mass. It was among the most beautiful things I have ever witnessed. We also walked around the Latin Quarter (our favorite part of the city) and ate delicious Parisian ice cream bars that I spilled all over myself.

Independence Day

L to R: Pebbles, Hummingbird, Skye, Toes, and me (by camp names, of course!)

On the 4th of July, I was a mutton in a Girl Scouts camp rodeo! Let's just say I'm baaaashful when it comes to how fast I can run with an 8-year old on my back. ;) 4th of July has always been among my favorite holidays... I love celebrating my United States culture and remembering the freedoms I have. Plus I can never resist a good hamburger! This year was especially cool since I got to share the holiday with some of my international friends. Pebbles is from Nepal and Skye is from Scotland. I loved watching them get to experience all the joys of face-painting US flags on their faces and singing loudly to country music. U-S-A!

My birthday!! 

Jake and I chillin' at a park in Denver

Celebrating 20 at the D-Bar

I got to spend my 20th birthday (whoa!) with my friend Jake. I drove to Denver and we strolled around a park for a while and then around the mall. I ordered a very large Earl Grey Tea latte and Jake and I got to catch up on life. It's hard to stay connected with friends back home when you spend most of your time in Iowa, but it's totally worth it. We went to the D-Bar for dinner and my raspberry-something-or-another desert was heavenly. Driving back to camp included some car trouble, but Jake was super nice and helped me figure it out. Awesome initiation to my 20s!

Labor Day

 Sam and I being ourselves

Every year as a Coe College Writing Center consultant, we have a Labor Day Staff Retreat. Last year we went to a cute little campsite and sang about writing center theory and pedagogy around the campfire (kind of). This year, we had our retreat at Coe. My travel-bug was a little sad, but ultimately it ended up being a great chance to gear up for the school year. It was my first time seeing a bunch of writing center friends since the previous school year. I also got to meet all the new first-years and see what wonderful attributes they would bring to our community. It was encouraging to see how my conferencing skills had improved since the year before when I was that new first year. I felt more confident and more ready than ever to bring Writing Center conferences to a new level of awesome.

Halloween 

Sara and I enjoying pumpkin bagels with pumpkin cream cheese in the Chicago airport

Jumping for joy on a beach in Tampa, Florida

This Halloween, I dressed up as one of those super lucky people who gets to visit the beach right when the temperatures in Iowa start to drop. The Coe Writing Center (which seems to be a common trend in this post) attended a peer tutoring conference in Tampa, Florida. You can read even more about that on my Coe Writing Center blog post. Basically though, it rocked. I can almost still feel the sand between my toes...

Veteran's Day

I received this nice little treat from one of my residents circa 11/11, so I will count it. I love being a Resident Assistant! I have a group of wonderful women on my floor who I know are going to accomplish so much in their time at Coe and beyond... Plus they are super sweet and give me bubble wrap. I appreciate the opportunity to give back to the Coe community a little, even if it's just by virtue of securing a radio for our bathroom and making sure our building stays safe.
Also on this day, I got to wish my sister Amanda a happy birthday and her son, Eli, a happy birthday too. Can't believe he is already 2!

And that brings us to now....

Thanksgiving

FaceTime with my parents... gotta love technology.

Watching America's Funniest Home Videos with Leeann

 I'll admit, I was NOT thrilled about spending Thanksgiving in Iowa. It's hard to watch everyone you know go home while you think about the consequences of choosing an out-of-state school when plane tickets are ridiculously expensive. But nevertheless, I had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Leeann and her family were nice enough to have me over for the day. We made almond-bark-peppermint-sprinkled pretzels, which were adorable and delectable. (The pretzels were shaped like Christmas trees!) I hung out with her family all day, helping chop broccoli for the casserole and watching TV like a pro. Later that night, we went to her aunt's house for the family dinner. There were a whole lot of people there, and every single one of them was so welcoming. I ate about my weight in turkey and pie... and I'm still working off the food coma.

And that's my year in holidays. It's been different -- at times sad, at times happy, at times somewhere in between. Ultimately, it's been a year to treasure. Thanks to everyone who helped me celebrate.

More Life Edits: Girl Scouts Camp

Ok friends, it's time for the post you have been passionately awaiting (hehe) for months. Girl Scouts camp. I said a boom-chick-a-boom.

This is a (delayed) continuation of my previous post entitled "Life Edits." Over the summer, I had a series of new life events that radically changed my perceptions of myself. You should read about my trip to Paris and then come back to this.

20 hours after I took my final exam for Paris May Term, I started a brand new summer job. I'll be honest: the turnaround time was rough. I literally finished the exam, hopped in a car, boarded a plane, landed in Colorado, drove home, unpacked, repacked, said hi to Mom and Dad, tried to sleep for 2 hours, actually slept for 1 hour, woke up at 5 AM, and drove 2 hours to Girl Scouts camp. Thank goodness they had coffee and yummy breakfast available when I got there.

Besides the hurried nature, it was incredibly hard to see my home for the first time since March and immediately leave it. It was a lot like getting one potato chip and THEN being told you can't have any more. I get it -- I'm in college and I have to grow up -- but that didn't make it hurt less. I was denying the familiar for this abstract concept of "adventure." In case you haven't been getting your literature on lately, "adventure" doesn't always turn out well (Bridge to Terabithia, anyone?). Sure, the worst adventures make for great stories... but not really for great experiences. Everything in me was crying out to stay home and make French toast with my mom and cuddle with my adorable puppy... but there was another voice too that said, "You'll never know until you try." I was conflicted, I was more homesick than ever, and I was exhausted.

Still, as I sat down next to Tick Tock and Emerald (camp names are so fun), I was overwhelmed by the hospitality of everyone around me. I could tell most of the counselors knew each other already, but that didn't stop them from talking to me. Tick Tock jumped into service mode and activated my watch (just think about the coincidence of that for a second), Twinkle showed me where the bathroom was, and Cream gave me the biggest hug in the history of ever. They didn't even judge me when I told them I had no clue how to start a fire. That's true Girl Scout acceptance right there.

Regardless of their non-judgmental attitudes, though, I was still judging myself. Sad truth: I like to pretend like I have my life together. I like to know lots of things, and I especially like to know more than everybody else does. Incompetence is the worst, most shameful feeling for me. And here I am in this job where I have no idea what I'm doing and where reading a book isn't really going to help me out. Trust me, I tried reading the staff manual under my sleeping bag with my flashlight while everyone else was asleep. I didn't know how I was going to shake the feeling of "Oh my gosh I don't know what I'm doing and I don't know why you hired me."

Over the course of staff week, I shook off a little of my incompetence. But that's not what this post is about. Shaking off incompetence doesn't help us improve, it just makes us unnecessarily feel better about ourselves. Embracing the incompetence is what truly makes us stronger. It's weighty, but it's worth it. The first week with campers taught me to do just that, but not really by my own choice. What could go wrong did go wrong -- from bee-stings to illnesses to freaking terrifying thunderstorms to total meltdowns. I learned to keep on keepin' on with a smile and a song because if I didn't laugh, I would cry. Most of all, I learned to ask for help. I learned to admit to myself that I don't know everything and that I don't have to be the best -- I just have to be better than I was before. It unleashed an undiscovered side of me -- the super fun, goofy, can't-care-won't-care side. I led units about Scottish dancing when we all know dancing is not my forte... and my arts and crafts were totally ridiculous. But the campers reveled in that side, and I did too. Being bad at things never felt so good.

Eventually, I learned to build a fire and to prevent 8-year-old meltdowns. I was a master at coming up with impromptu entertainment for the campers during awkward breaks. I even drove through the mountains to go home for the weekend in the dark without cell phone service... and 5 hours later, safely arrived... That's a story for another day. I had friends that made camp not quite home, but pretty darn close. I was feeling good and I realized how cool 8-year olds are. The best week of all was the last week. I didn't have high expectations. My birthday was the Sunday the campers arrived and for the first time I wasn't celebrating with my family. I had a pep talk with myself: "One last week. Make it the best. Prove yourself. They deserve it, and you deserve it." I was determined to be a high energy, low stress ball of wonder for 22 campers enrolled in Deep Space camp. Let me just say... best. theme. ever. We played glow-in-the-dark capture the flag. We made moon pies. We planned a space mission. We drew the planets to scale. And even in my lack of all things craft, I taught them to make alien-protection hats which we wore collectively to the dining hall.

The thing about camp that makes it so magical is that everything falls into place when you let it. You smile a lot, you sing until your lungs can't handle it, and you play games like it's your calling in life. You're open to new ideas, plans, and stories. 8-years olds understand that competence follows learning, learning follows wonder, and wonder comes when we stop stressing about every tiny little detail. Life happens, but whether we follow it or wallow in our perceived incompetence is totally up to us.

Besides that, camp was the one thing in my life that wasn't about me. It was about something so much bigger. College is so self-based: getting good grades, advancing my skill sets, learning about my opportunities. It's exhausting! At camp, it's about 200 imaginative, loving, intelligent girls. One of the most impacting moments of my life was when a camper with hydrocephalus (an intellectual disability caused by abnormal accumulation of cerebrospinal fluid in the brain) was about to say good-bye. With big tears in her eyes, she told her mom, "I don't want to go home." She clinged to me and sang farewell camp songs. Her mom whispered appreciatively, "Thank you." That moment was more beautiful than getting an A any day.

I'm so glad I took that risk and endured the 5 AM morning... it means I got to spend many more 5 AM mornings with the most amazing people influencing the most amazing future generation (cheesy, but true). I couldn't be more appreciative.

Aaaaand 24 hours after I finished my job at camp, I left to go back to college. Quick turnarounds should be on my resume. Read about that in my next post... I like to keep you on your toes. ;)