My Term of Service & Dateline

Being a volunteer for America was never anything that crossed my mind until the past few years. I enjoyed doing community service at Capital University for the local community, but I never looked at the bigger picture: the whole state of Ohio or even the whole country. After graduation I planned on finding a job just like the rest of the fresh graduates and taking my place in the "grown up" world. Little was I aware that not only was I competing with other recent grads like myself, but also all the other people who had lost their job in the recession that I happened to be walking into.

I had the opportunity to become a VISTA last summer but I just knew that things were going to get better and I would be able to find a good job. Looking back on that time now, I really wished I would have taken the position then. Oh the clarity of hind-sight. Again, taking a year off from the corporate world and providing a year of service was not something I expected to be doing post-graduation. Now after watching the Dateline special about Southeast Ohio (my region!) I am even more empowered to get out there and do some good!

I was extremely touched by the special. After watching Ann Curry travel throughout Southeast Ohio and just how bad the economic impact is there, my opinions of government assistance has changed greatly. The limited and extreme choices these families are facing are not things I would have thought been possible in America. To know that so many Americans are struggling on a daily basis just to provide not only for themselves but also their families, it's heart breaking. And to know that there are still so many people that either just don't know about the assistance they have available to them or their pride stops them from using that assistance is also heart breaking. Coming from a very middle class family in a rural area, I have somewhat of an understanding of the hardships these families are going through, but my family and I have been lucky enough to not know what it's like first hand.

Please use this link to watch the special if you missed it last night:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38382773/ns/dateline_nbc-america_now

First Timer

I have finally been influenced enough to begin my own blog. I have never been a blogger or even someone who has had the capability of writing about myself. But since I have been blogging for Southeast Ohio I have a new found interest. I was also inspired by other VISTA blogs to just write down my experience as I go through this next year. So, I guess "Welcome to my 1st blog!"

This first month of being an AmeriCorps*VISTA community trainer and working with the OASHF has been an eventful one for me. I have learned so many things and travelled to so many places my mind is still spinning! I don't think I can really handle putting much more information up there! I have had such packed days that my schedule just bleeds from one week to another. There are highlights that have stuck out, but this past month and a half has just become one giant blur. I know that after I actually get more into the trainings myself and I am out on my own without my RC things are only going to pick up and speed up...

I am really excited to continue on my path of being a VISTA this coming year and I know that there is much to learned. I can into this program not knowing a lot about it and not being able to explain to my parents what I was going to be doing, but now I feel more confident in my decision (even if I still can't completely illustrate it for my family)! Southeast Ohio look out because here I come!!