The Wrap Up of CTI - Next Chapter: SPIKE

It's been a little while since I've last written anything in here, sorry. I've been quite busy with living, breathing, eating and sleeping; computers are way down on the list.

I found out my first SPIKE last week, we're going to Salt Lake City, UT to work with the food bank collecting and organizing food for impoverished, hungry individuals. We will be there for one month until December 16th, and we leave on Monday. We'll be staying at a camp for special needs kids that is currently in the off-season in the mountains bordering the city. When we get back from Christmas break (am I going to Tulsa for break!? Find out next time!) we will spend a week at the Sacramento Zoo doing animal work and general maintenence, then a week of firefighting training getting our Red Cards, then a week at the zoo again, then a week getting chainsaw certified. Exciting times, I know.

Other notable notables:

--- I recently found out I can still do some tumbling. I attempted and successfully completed a round-off back layout on Holmes Field; it's basically a backflip but with your legs straight out, like you're "laying out". Get it? It's fun.

--- Yesterday was the talent show. There are a LOT of very talented people here at this campus, definitely way more than you would meet in everyday life. I was extremley surprised and impressed by the level of ability some of the Corps members have. Also at the end all the TLs (Team Leaders) performed a "tradition" where they all lined up and each one chewed an Oreo cookie, then brushed their teeth with toothpaste and spit the goo into a cup. Then the last two TLs drank it. It was disgusting... My old Pod Leader Patrick was the one to drink a cup.

--- Today we "graduated" from the Corps Training Institute to become official Americorps NCCC members, I got a certificate with my name on it and everything. To celebrate our team laid them on the ground and did pushups, kissing the diploma on every down. I love my team.

--- I just went to a "poetry slam/open mic night" for Corps members. I just intended to watch, but got inspired and wrote/performed this while I was there. It killed, I was pretty happy about that, seeing as it was the first time I'd ever written anything and performed it, and it was on such short notice. I wrote it on the back of the Americorps pledge, quite fitting I thought.

I see these people bearin' hearts,
Up on a stage in stops and starts,
And though delivery is shakin' their breakin' my heart is achin'
These lyrics awaken in me a sense of somber connection.

To the threads we all weave,
And the air we all breath,
It grows this seed in me,
A seed into a tree,
A boy into me,
Full-leafed and Green,
Wait, scratch that, Silver,
Or Gold, or Blue.

Don't be the crease that's in the fold,
Be the page that touches page and brings old soul to old soul,
Please make a difference to the whole.

I see these people bearin' hearts,
Up on a stage in stops and starts,
And it's makin' my heart race,
For the future of our nation's face,
Americorps, from a place, to a place,
Go forth with grace.

-J