catch up

I've been well reminded by my mother that I have not updated my blog since august 5th and it is now august 17th. what have I been thinking.

upon arrival in sacramento, we were greeted by our other FEMA corps members who had arrived at campus a day or two before us, coming from their deployments in everywhere from oakland, california, to new mexico to kansas city to oklahoma. we went through transition, which consisted of debriefs in front of the unit leaders on our individual projects, community meetings, and celebrations we've created for our previous deployments (ours was a FEMA corps version of the cup song I took to writing lyrics for during some down time in dc). 

it was a wonderful few days catching up with friends, other teams, and staff on campus that I hadn't seen as far back march. everyone has different stories from their different projects and different interactions they were able to learn and grow from, but all of our experiences, whether at headquarters in dc or on an indian reservation in new mexico or a facility in southern texas, were similar in that we've all learned an immense amount about ourselves and how we interact not only with each other and the communities we serve, but with the world around us. the past six months have been some of the most interesting months I've lived and it's a wonderful feeling knowing I have a support system with the other corps members who have been on the same journey. 

I am now enjoying my weeklong summer hiatus from FEMA corps, spending time with family, sleeping in a bed without one to two other people in it, eating foods that are green and leafy, and appreciating the home I was raised in. I've never appreciated southern california more than after driving down the coast with my corps member friends who are from the east coast and had never before touched the pacific ocean. it's nice to come home and see my own community in a different light (not to mention planning a way to call the entire city together to make sure every person and family has a fully functioning emergency plan and kit and to educate them on the realities of natural disasters...but that may take longer than the four more days I am here....)

all in all, I am more than happy to have this time at home and catch up with friends and family before heading back up to finish my year of service. 

next stop: washington state.