fourteen weeks later

it's been fourteen weeks today that I've been on the road with FEMA corps. living and working with the same seven people has presented its challenges as well as its benefits. not only have I been living out of a duffel for fourteen weeks, but I've also gotten to know the full extent of the meaning behind the word "flexibility." we've driven across the country in a van with each other packed to the brim with duffels and might-as-well-be-bulletproof-CIA-looking laptop cases all the while wearing our thick wool and pseudo wool boot socks stuffed in our steel-toed boots. if I were someone else reading that last sentence, I would probably 1. tell the blogger she must be exaggerating and to calm down a bit 2. want a photo of these laptop cases to prove the intensity of their exteriors, and 3. ask the blogger why they're doing this again? 

time has gone by both incredibly fast and painstakingly slow. I have no idea how I got to be sitting in a hotel in illinois anticipating my assignment for the next day (that I won't know the details of until 8am tomorrow morning) but I'm really glad I'm here. there have been struggles and frustrations (what else can you expect when you live and work and sleep and eat and breathe the same air with the same small group of people day in and day out) but if anything, I've learned that I am a much stronger person than I had realized. our work assignments change day to day and we don't know what they are until the morning of and that alone has taught me to be not only flexible but patient. no matter what we get thrown into or expected to do, we will figure it out and not only succeed, but do so with flying colors. I've learned an entirely new vocabulary while being with FEMA corps and would never before have thought I'd be able to carry on fluid and cohesive conversations with FEMA employees who have worked with the agency for several years. but now I can. and am proud to do so.

it's strange seeing my friends and family on facebook who are graduating from college and moving to graduate programs in other states because that world seems so different than the one I live in right now. the world of disaster relief revolves around the weather channel and being aware of tornado warnings and knowing exactly how quickly I can pack up my duffel should we hit the road tonight to respond to a disaster. it's a new world and one that is more fast paced and unpredictable than any I've been in so far and I am so grateful to have the opportunity to be fully immersed in it for ten months of my life.