College Lasts 4 Years But Reece House is Forever

Oh Miriam, see this is why this blog was a great idea: so we can share the stuff that matters while also being sure to share the other stuff like how this computer I'm on used to belong to Fred Flinstone and how I'm keeping it powered by beaming positive energy waves toward it while spinning a foot wheel. Ok so that's a bit of an exageration. But yeah. It's old.
First off my news: I had my first Americorps job interview today- it's a job near Olympia, Washington that's kinda affliated with the Nature Conservancy. The basic job description: working in a native plant nursery growing thousands of lovely little native plants. I also would get to spend some time in the field collecting seeds, bossing around volunteers and students and planting the cute little plants that grow in the greenhouse. My would-be boss says "um" a lot and grew up in a hippie commune kinda thing. He has a Quaker friend who grows her own wheat and is married to a potter who sells his ceramics for bison meat. Hmmmm. I think the interview went well. It sounds like a cool job- a blend of horticulture, nursery stuff with ecology. Plus a lot of organizational computer stuff. We'll see- I should hear by this time next week. I've applied a bunch of other places too and should be getting interviews with them sometime soon as well.

In terms of the kinds of things Miriam was talking about, you know- pondering those big life questions, I've been doing a lot of that while here. Many of the people in the program don't want a "traditional" life. They don't want to settle down and live in a house with a spouse and kids and a dog. It's actually kinda funny because somehow the few straight women in the group (by chance) ended up going out for dessert together and exclaiming about the rest of the group's resistance to settling down. I know I want to get married, I know I want a labrador to two. I know I want a house. And I'm almost 100% sure I want kids. I don't know... I have just really come to the conclusion that I need to have roots. I need to have a community that supports me and that I feel a part of. I also really think that it doesn't have to be this boring, conservative thing to start a family- it can actually be quite radical in that you are helping to bring progressive, open, little people into the world.

I mean, I think part of the difference between myself and some of these people is that I'm not led to be a social activist. I'm just not. I'm not a people person. I have my core group of people that I love dearly, but my cause is not the social justice cause. I'm not going to devote my life to helping the homeless. I had to really struggle with this- thinking that somehow I was "copping out" (is that how you spell it?) and not doing the right thing; being selfish. But that's just not the case. We all have our own interests, our own passions and as a result we all can take different paths toward "saving the world". I'll be working to make sure that the planet is ok (or at least one small square of it) while they'll be taking care of one species. OK that's harsh. But in all honesty, I'm really trying to be at peace with this decision of mine to take the ecology/horticulture/biology route instead of the one that I feel like I "should" take as a liberal, compassionate, responsible Quaker citizen. So yeah- that's one of my struggles at the moment.

The YALD program here ends on August 1st and I'll be driving home on the 2nd. It's going to be so strange to leave this place. It's such a bubble here and I've felt blessed to spend my summer in such a beautiful place- beautiful in many ways beyond the asethetic beauty of being a gorgeous campus. I'm going to keep in touch with people from the program so that I have people to hold me accountable, to be sure that I continue to work on wrestling with the big questions, with my spiritual questions, life, development, etc. But also, we've become a really loving, supporting community and I'm going to miss having such a warm, safe space that I can really relax into and be vulnerable. Oh boy, vulnerability. Not my strong suit.

Anyways, I miss you all so much. They make fresh bread a lot here and every time I eat it I think of all the times we made bread together and downed a loaf in one evening.

I'm off to glazing my pottery that came out of the kiln yesterday!

love you