So, I just realized I never blogged about my decision for next year. After Re-O in January, I decided to apply to a second year of JVC, but this time in the Northwest (closer to home! yay!) The first half of my JVC year, it never occurred to me that I would even want to do a second year. But, after reflections at Re-O I decided to apply.
The real decision came when I was accepted and had to choose whether to do the job or move back to Portland. Both options sounded awesome. If I did another year of JVC I would be able to live in community again, in a new city and live the four values for an additional year. But if I moved to Portland I could hang out with family and live with my sister when she gets back from Guatemala. I could still volunteer in the area and work on my mom's documentary while applying for grad school. And my budget wouldn't be quite as tight as it is now. After stressing about it for a few days, making pros and cons lists and imagining myself in both positions, I decided to accept the JVC NW job.
So! this is what my life will look like starting in August--I will be moving to Spokane, Washington (I've never been there!) My job will be at a women and children's shelter called St. Margaret's ( Website ) It looks really cool. I'm not entirely sure what my job will be there. In my interview the JV that has the job now said that I will be working with the women in a clothing closet to help them learn about business. I don't really know anything about business, so it sounds like I'm as qualified for that job as I was for the one I'm doing now ;) She also said I will be working late one night a week having dinner and hanging out with the residents. Apparently this time is well liked by the JV's because it's more informal and everyone is back from school and work. I also may be doing some other tasks around the shelter but not sure what those are yet. She mentioned something about me making my own schedule which I would like a lot!!!!
But--back to my life here. My job is going well and of course my community is amazing. All this thinking about next year has kind of distracted me from what's going on here. I want to make sure I make the best of the next 4 months before I have to leave. I actually am leaving for a big chunk of April though, which I have been feeling kind of bad about. This weekend I'm going to go to Vegas and meet up with Sean and Chrystea, which will be exciting, but I'm also missing Jen's birthday weekend. Then, I'm going to Portland from April 21st (Thurs) to the 29th (Fri) and miss Easter here as well. I think both trips will be really fun, but I hate leaving Tucson and missing out on stuff. Basically I want to be in two places at once, and since I don't have Hermione's necklace that's not possible.
Speaking of reading young adult books, I have read all three of the Hunger Games books recently, and if you haven't read them yet---well just do it. They are awesome and addicting and yeah....I read them all in about a week's time. And my whole house has read them now too. They really are that good.
Monday, March 28, 2011
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Training for my First Marathon
So.....training for a marathon is HARD!!
I know this probably sounds like an obvious statement, but I just had to say it. I'm training for my first marathon, so it's definitely a new experience.
Here's a little story about how I got here:
Growing up, my mom was always a super runner, doing marathons and being awesome. I never thought I could possibly ever run a marathon. When I was little, I HATED running. Absolutely hated it. When they made us do the mile run in 4th grade I wanted to skip PE. Don't even get me started on the 12 minute run! But I still looked up to my mom for running so many cool races.
When I was in high school, I injured my knee playing basketball and had to get 2 different knee surgeries for my meniscus, which the doctor told me looked like "swiss cheese." And he also asked me if I was really 17, not much older because of what the MRI of my knee looked like. I assured him that was my age, and was very worried I would not be able to play basketball or run again! (A little dramatic, but I didn't know!)
In college, I started to run for exercise and it became fun. I enjoyed going on runs and listening to music on my iPod. I played ultimate frisbee and we had to keep in shape, so I ran at practice and on the weekends. Sophomore year, my mom and sister (who became an amazing runner as well) convinced me to do a half marathon. I trained for this mostly by doing 5 mile runs. I did run one 7 mile run, but that was on accident because I got lost!
I went through college thinking that doing more than 13.1 miles would kill my knees and I would never be able to do it. Then, this year I ran my second half marathon in Tucson with my housemate Jen. After that, she convinced me to run a marathon with her in San Diego in June. She has since decided to do the half, but I'm sticking to running the full. I have decided it's one of my life goals to finally run a full marathon.
So, that's where I am today. I still have never run more than 13.1 miles, but on my training schedule my long run is 13 this week! And soon it will be 15...and eventually in June I will be running a full 26.2 miles! It's a very scary thought and I have decided that if I need to walk for part of it that's ok. I just really want to cross that finish line. And my mom has decided to run it with me, so we'll be crossing that finish line together.
I know this probably sounds like an obvious statement, but I just had to say it. I'm training for my first marathon, so it's definitely a new experience.
Here's a little story about how I got here:
Growing up, my mom was always a super runner, doing marathons and being awesome. I never thought I could possibly ever run a marathon. When I was little, I HATED running. Absolutely hated it. When they made us do the mile run in 4th grade I wanted to skip PE. Don't even get me started on the 12 minute run! But I still looked up to my mom for running so many cool races.
When I was in high school, I injured my knee playing basketball and had to get 2 different knee surgeries for my meniscus, which the doctor told me looked like "swiss cheese." And he also asked me if I was really 17, not much older because of what the MRI of my knee looked like. I assured him that was my age, and was very worried I would not be able to play basketball or run again! (A little dramatic, but I didn't know!)
In college, I started to run for exercise and it became fun. I enjoyed going on runs and listening to music on my iPod. I played ultimate frisbee and we had to keep in shape, so I ran at practice and on the weekends. Sophomore year, my mom and sister (who became an amazing runner as well) convinced me to do a half marathon. I trained for this mostly by doing 5 mile runs. I did run one 7 mile run, but that was on accident because I got lost!
I went through college thinking that doing more than 13.1 miles would kill my knees and I would never be able to do it. Then, this year I ran my second half marathon in Tucson with my housemate Jen. After that, she convinced me to run a marathon with her in San Diego in June. She has since decided to do the half, but I'm sticking to running the full. I have decided it's one of my life goals to finally run a full marathon.
So, that's where I am today. I still have never run more than 13.1 miles, but on my training schedule my long run is 13 this week! And soon it will be 15...and eventually in June I will be running a full 26.2 miles! It's a very scary thought and I have decided that if I need to walk for part of it that's ok. I just really want to cross that finish line. And my mom has decided to run it with me, so we'll be crossing that finish line together.
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