I am officially feeling summer in the Office of Community Service and Religious Life. Students are not coming in every day, I am not getting texts throughout the day asking me questions, my e-mail is much quieter and summer projects are dwindling but we are spreading out the time it takes to do them. I was unable to attend Dickinson's graduation two weeks ago, but I am (ever so slightly) thankful I didn't attend. It was rainy and the usual outside commencement was taken inside a toasty gym, rumor has it, that it was roughly 90 degrees in it- too hot for me! I am sad to see the students go, they are what make and made my job at Dickinson fun. I am pretty lucky that I can say that I will be doing similar work when I attend graduate school in the fall at MSU again. I was able to watch Ian McEwan's and Mark Ruffalo's commencement speeches online. Here is the link in case anyone is interested in watching them as well, I thought they were very good and had a great message. (lovehttps://www.dickinson.edu/news/article/1603/you_have_to_fight_for_what_you_love)
My summer projects are a little fun, I get to paint a tree in the living room of Landis House, which is going to be the "office tree" or the "student worker tree". I have sketched a tree on the wall with chalk and over the next couple days, I will actually start painting it and then putting up picture frames all around it that student worker photos will go in to symbolize that we are all Landis House staff together, we may not be in the same office, but we all work together, as a family. This project was thought of during Christmas and over winter break, but I am just now having time to dedicate to it and I am happy that it is actually coming a reality! The next big project I have is re-organizing and moving things in the CommServ Office. The CommServ office is a student work office, where all materials can be found: paper, markers, pencils, board games, sandwich boards, signs, service trip supplies... everything! This office is now going to be shared with two other organizations, so moving an entire office to a corner is a little tricky. I am in the process of talking to facilities and having them create shelving on a wall, finding bookshelves from the Dickinson storage, and figuring out how to condense so much stuff into few containers, take out of boxes, and rummage through an office where everything is literally everywhere. I am an organized person and (actually) like cleaning for the most part, so this is a good job for me to do. It is crazy to think that I only have about 7 weeks of work left and then I am moving back to the Midwest. I am feeling a tad bit torn about it. I am very ready to be back and start school, but I also feel a smidgen of sadness not seeing students again and missing members of the parish.
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| Birthday fun! |
I am officially 24 now, folks. I was not happy to turn 23, because 22 was my golden birthday, but it looks like 24 is alright. Much better than 23 anyway, ha. It was a great birthday- definitely the best I've had in awhile! During our Friday morning meetings, my director brought donuts, and then the house and I started working on frozen bananas for Arts Fest which was Saturday-Monday. While we were working on dipping bananas in chocolate, the principal from the school came by and said that a box of food was delivered and it was for me. I opened the box and it was a big cookie cake from a bakery in MA. Inside was a little note and I learned my mom had ordered me a birthday cake and had it delivered to me! That was special for me because my mom usually bakes a cake for my birthday every year! The day was also special because the house and I kind of celebrated together. Chicken kabobs, mojitios, chips and guacamole, and watermelon were served and we ate outside, and the Harrisburg Sentors had fireworks that night, so we moved to the river and watched the fireworks. I got so many texts, calls, and birthday wishes that it all made it incredibly special!
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| Arts Fest with my mentor |
I was outside a lot this week, got a little tan and a little burnt, but Arts Fest was successful! Arts Fest is a annual event that happens on Front street in Harrisburg, aka directly in front of my house, and our house sells things to raise money for the Sycamore House. Throughout the year, we receive donations of books and then we sell them at Arts Fest, we sold chocolate covered frozen bananas, and then bottles of water. In the past, they had not sold water, but that proved to be a hit because we sold 9 cases of water in 2 days. Over the weekend, we raised $1,164.84 and we are going to donate about half to Nepal for earthquake relief efforts, but the rest will go into a fund for the next year's house so they can go on a retreat and have money for food the first week or so they get there. Arts Fest was cool in the sense that so many vendors from all around came to sell their works. I fell in love with a woman who used pastels and they didn't look like pastels at all! She created a life-like rottweiler and she focuses on animals, mainly horses. It was incredible. I am finding that pastels are one of my favorite mediums in my Monday night art class. It is so fascinating to me to see how people create something like that, so talented!
This upcoming weekend will not be nearly as exciting. I am hoping to relax a bit and spend some time outside, it has been getting warm out again, so we will decide as we go!
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