Week two from the eyes on an optimist

I like to believe I am an optimist, a glass-half-full kind of girl if you will. I say this because I was reading my fellow interns' week two blogs (or at least those ambitious enough to have theirs done by Saturday evening) and observing a common theme: frustration.

I’ve found in my past experiences that I prefer to focus on and remember joyful occurrences. That’s not to say that I don’t get frustrated and can’t get caught up in it. That’s also not to say that my fellow interns' frustrations are somehow less important than my good experiences. I am being purely selfish in my reflecting so that in a few months when I reread this blog, I will remember my second week fondly.

All that said, I realize that I have been truly blessed this week.

Having never experienced anything quite like the Boys and Girls Club, I had some nerves about how I would fare. As is becoming a recurring theme in my life, I realize I should just trust God and not worry. The club is a great place, and I can’t think of a “job” I’ve had where time passes so quickly and effortlessly. I’ve developed a joy for listening to kids learning to read. I’ve discovered that mostly they just want you to spend time with them – be it playing Candy Land, Foosball or something in between.

I also appreciate what an amazing place Booneville is. I am also realizing how amazingly small it is compared to anywhere I’ve been before. Where else besides Booneville, Arkansas, can I volunteer with a set of people in the morning and get to spend the afternoon with those same people’s children?

So if I had only one word to write in my memory for my second week as a GreaterWorks intern in the community of Booneville, it would be blessed. I am blessed for the people I’ve met; blessed for the plug-in griddle Katie found this morning so we could make pancakes (we will have a stove soon… I hope); blessed for what I will learn this year through the books I read and the teammates I am living with. I am blessed.

And with that, I think I will go get myself a glass half full of water.

Until next week,

Becca

Finding home far from it

“We’re sure you’re going to fall in love with the community in Booneville.” With those words my heart dropped just a little as I feigned my initial excitement over the phone with Dave Berg upon hearing my GreaterWorks placement.

That’s not to say that I didn’t expect it to some degree. There are a couple of things you should know to help make sense of the heart-dropping feelings and lack of surprise.

For my YouthWorks! summer I had hoped to work with high school students on a rural site. I ended up on a junior high city site. Prior to committing to GreaterWorks, I had anticipated moving back to the Cincinnati area. Somewhere in my heart of hearts I felt like my personal desires would be put on the back burner and I would end up as far away from what I called home as possible.

Shortly after arriving home from my YouthWorks! summer in Rapid City, S.D., I had MapQuest searched the distance from each GreaterWorks site (save Juarez since my Spanish skills do not exceed ‘Hola, como estas?’) to my house is Maineville, Ohio. All were under a six-hour drive but one – Booneville, Arkansas.

So I booked a flight and prepared to enter into a year of what I anticipated to be a hiatus from journalism far from home.

And after a week of training I found myself adjusting to a new home with a new kind of family – my teammates. Our community contact, Pastor Mark McDonald, and his family lovingly welcomed us into the community, and as our first week continued I began to truly believe Dave’s words. I could love a place almost thirteen hours from where I had spent most of my life.

Yet another surprise came in a meeting with the Boys and Girls Club where I will be spending a significant amount of time volunteering. Contrary to my initial thoughts, I will get to keep my journalism skills strong and in use over this time. They are hoping to put together a newsletter, and I am excited that I definitely have the skills to help them with it.

So any anxieties I might have had upon first knowing where I would be spending the better part of the next year of my life have pretty much faded away over our first week here in Booneville. If there is one thing I learned from my YouthWorks! summer it is that you can fall in love with a place you least expected to. And here I am with the opportunity to learn that lesson all over again.

There’s no telling what God will teach me over the coming months, but I am definitely looking forward to finding out.

God bless,

Becca