An Ode to the Seemingly Inconsequential Choices

Today, as part of my practicum work, I ran two sessions on bullying at camp and abuse & disclosure.  To be totally honest, I was so nervous.
I wanted to make sure that I was communicating the best I could, equipping the (entire) camp staff with the information and tools needed to deal with these issues.
I also wanted to make sure that these kids would be safe and cared for, no matter what had happened to them in the past or what is happening to them currently.

I'm in school for a Social Science degree, with a concentration in Counselling - I had this plan to go into a Masters of Social Work or Counselling and work with women or children in abusive situations... but I don't think I ever really felt as convicted in my studies until now.  After researching, talking to RCMP officers, and learning about interviewing children, I've had this knot of anticipation growing in my stomach, like this excitable passion and deep care for these issues.  Like, I actually care about sharing this information to the staff, and I actually care that these kids are being taken care of.

This is (k)not really a new experience - I've had knots and passions like this before.  But never so clearly have I seen my future in these passions.  I'm at this age now where I'm figuring out what I can reasonably do for a career, which is scary as well as exciting.  And it's especially exciting when seemingly inconsequential situations just fall into a place where passion and purpose meet..

I ended up in university because all my friends were going to the same one.  Some strangers from BC ended up coming to the same university, either thinking it was just going to be a year or having plans in the minds that changed as time went on.  We didn't really think about it.  My original roommate dropped out before September, and my actual roommate needed a roommate after only deciding she was coming back a few weeks before.  We all ended up on the same floor, ended up getting along, ended up bonding over drinks and similar experiences of being new and shy.  Those strangers became some of my best friends within such a short amount of time, that I couldn't even (and still can't) believe that such friendships could happen.

Despite hating the Intro Psychology courses, I decided to power through and try other specified Psych courses, and ended up falling in love with curiosity and the human psyche.

One of those strangers talked about her experience working up at a camp in BC.  My roommate decided to try it for a summer.  Coming back with a sun-kissed tan full of memories, she encouraged me to apply.  I did, despite the fact that I'd hope to stay in Winnipeg for sake of ease.  It certainly wasn't an easy decision or an easy summer, but I ended up being sucked into this incredible community of caring Christians and expanding my idea of what it meant to be "Christian."

And after the hardest year of my life, I decided to come back - this time, camp was an easy choice because I needed a social service practicum.
And here I am.  Not really knowing what will happen this summer, what I will learn, how I will grow and be challenged, and not really knowing where the choices I make now will take me later.
But I'm excited to continue and to look back and see all the inconsequential choices adding up to a less-than inconsequential path.

Office work

Here are some small tidbits of my work week in the camp office.

I emailed maaaany parents reminding them about their lack of consent forms for camp.  I got to an email that had johnlock in the address, and it reminded me of Sherlock and made me cry tears of joyous wonder.

*I now know what working for the weekend means (to watch Netflix in bed with hot tea and back pain)

*I'm starting to hear phantom phone rings

*typing out so many obscure email addresses makes me lose confidence in my typing accuracy and ability

*I find so many puns among email addresses and last names that I wish someone were here for me to tell them (rather than mutter it under my breath and giggle to myself in a near-empty office)

*to the email address thspooner: your email probably makes a lot of sense to you, likely using initials, but to me your email address makes me think of this

Translink Adventures

If anyone knows Vancouver transit, you'll probably relate.  If you don't, quick rundown

• There are 3 zones - Vancouver (1), around Vancouver (2), and hella far from Vancouver (3)
• Each zone is $2.75.  If you wanna ride 2 zones, it's $4.00.  If you wanna ride all 3 zones, might as well stay home because it's $5.50
• There are buses, Skytrains, and seabuses.
• No one from North Vancouver ever leaves North Van.. unless it's a "special occasion."

I work in West Vancouver, which is just around Vancouver, meaning I must travel 2 zones on my hour long commute to and from work ($8.00 total, I love it).

Today, I skipped down the street (more like trudged along with my amazingly heavy backpack), FareSaver and $1.25 in various change in my hand, to catch my bus taking me back to the grand ‘ole city of Vancouver.  To the relief of my wallet, the ticket machine was broken – I screamed a little YES! in my head.

The bus was completely packed, so I was squished standing in the middle between some old ladies sitting who didn’t speak English and a mother holding a baby and a stroller desperately trying not to bang her baby’s head against someone or something.  I heard a small voice from behind another woman say, “Do you want me to take him, Mom?”  The exasperated mother passed her baby over to her young daughter, who proceeded to bounce him on her knee and point him out the window.  The entire bus was taken by this little drooling lump of smiles; women were baby-talking to him, men were smiling and making faces at him – myself included.

I chatted up the mom a little bit, telling her that he was already quite the ladies man, despite the drool.  She said, “he takes after his older brothers!” to which I replied, “I hope not with the drooling, too!” (insert raucous laughter here)

When I continued onto the Skytrain, I stood beside some extroverted Australian couples talking about a variety of topics, from war stories to shady pipeline deals to how “this generation doesn’t know anything about real work.”  I noticed one of the gentlemen had a ying-yang tattoo on his hand, which gave me a glimpse of what this generation would look like in 50 years with all our tattoos..
Just listening to their conversations made me feel connected to them and their topics, even though I was much too shy to say anything and have nothing to add to them (except for "I have WORKED, believe me").  There’s this unspoken rule on public transit - I’m sure you’ve all felt it - that you get on and only speak to those you’ve come on with.  Although this norm is useful when a) you’re tired and have spent your last amount of emotional energy, b) you’ve spotted someone you probably shouldn’t talk to, or c) you have been spotted as one of those people, it’s sometimes a great joy to talk to people on transit.  You never know what kind of shared connection or experience you could have, which is what I probably learned last summer but has been really apparent in this week alone.

OH, and a few stops before mine, two men in their late 40’s came on the bus reeking of weed.  Ahh, BC.  How I missed you..

BC DREAMIN'

So I'm back.
This time, I'm in BC!

I've left my wide-open prairie skies and traded them for mountain walls.
This is my second summer out here, working at camp and trying not to laugh too rudely at kids [sometimes they just say the dumbest things, I'm sorry, I can't handle it].

Some funny things have happened to me. And I've decided to write more [publicly]!

So here it is. It isn't much, but it's something.

What university students do on April Fool's

So there I was, trying to get the last couple papers of the semester done. My roommate and other hall mates had gone home for the weekend, so I was left utterly alone. You'd think I would have actually finished my papers, but ...
Something hit me. A bought of inspiration.
Many people were gone.
They weren't coming back til later that night or even the next morning.
And it was April Fool's day.

I had to. It wouldn't have been right not to do something on that blessed day.

So I, along with my RA, wrapped one friend's entire room and things with newspaper.

Then we switched two friend's rooms.

 This bed was one friend's two mattresses from her bunks put on one bed.

She didn't really mind that idea too much, actually.

Same friend's stuff, in the exact same place as it was in her original room.

A little hang out corner for our other friend on her newly acquired bunk! 

It was so great, they were all thrilled when they came home :D

FIRST technical all-nighter!

2500 word research essay, 7pm to 3am, 8 hours total…
I have to get up in 3 hours. Guess who has two virtual thumbs and is going to be sleeping all afternoon and evening tomorrow?




THIS GUY!

And me. 

'Why I'm Failing' Excuses

The teachers decide to put all their essays within the same two weeks.

The internet is full of interesting and funny things.

Disney has an amazing selection of childhood movies I haven't seen in years.

Shopping is so much more appealing.

I was becoming closer to my friends during late-night chats.

Alcohol is just so yummy.. and you can't really write anything good while drinking it.

My room is just so gross and needs cleaning and organizing.

Reading through a ton of books really is not enjoyable.

The fish bowl needs cleaning.

I haven't updated my blog in a while.

I haven't checked Facebook in the past 3 minutes.

I am feeling in need of a [random] run because of lethargy.

Oh, look, dinner/snack/other event is in 5 minutes/half an hour/two hours, I can't possibly start on all these assignments.

Freshmen Fail #1

On the very first day of university, my friend Jillian was zoning out during the assembly. She snapped back to reality when she noticed people standing up beside her. So, following suit, she stood up as well. Turns out, the speaker had called all the residence assistants to stand up. She's only a first-year.

lulz.

The university life, for reals.

Ode to the Heater

Oh, you wretched heater,
Is my life all that great?
Sure, you heat like a baus,
But sometimes I just hate.. you.

You are oh so toasty
by mid-afternoon,
But I'm choking slowly
On your foul.. stench. [it fell away from me a little]

[this is the best part]
It's so damn cold outside.
There is frost on the grass.
You're not on come morning,
And I'm freezing my ass.

Moral of the story: Eff you heater, you make loud noise and heat the wrong time of day.

My biology teacher.

Without fail, he always starts the class with a recap of how our sports teams are doing.
So we always know the specifics of our sucking right before we delve into the enthralling specifics of protists.
It's a great tactic to get us to concentrate on our sucking rather than learning the boring details of early moss reproduction.
Because we really learn things.
Things that definitely help us pass our exams.

Meh, why do I care, our hockey team won yesterday!

Advantages to volunteering at a cafe...

1. Free coffee. Every time you work.
2. Listening to big band jazz music. Holla.
3. Get to pretend you're a huge coffee enthusiast.
4. Stereotypical 'hipster' persona.
5. The ability to work AND study. [or work and go online]
6. Keeping the tips.
7. Smells like goodness all the time.
8. Experimenting with your artistic talent in latte foam.
9. Job experience. [I hear Starbucks calling already..]
10. Meeting and socializing with students, teachers, and what we call 'music moms' who bring their children for music lessons.
11. My friend and co-worker Beth gives me sporadic massages :]

University To-Do List

Because we have so much homework and such, most of the time, we're hard at work. Studying, writing, analyzing.. it's all we do, really [such lies].
But the times where we're not being studious students studying?
We're...

•Eating [rice, peanut butter, extra dessert we sneaked to our room, milk we stole from the cafeteria]

•Watching quality programming [like Grey's Anatomy, Glee.. Or 16 and Pregnant.. you know who you are]

•Figuring out transit schedules [we seem to think the bus will come when we get to the stop without looking them up first]

•Finding interesting things online [that need our undivided attention just before we start our essays]

 ex. one of our favourites, from iwastesomuchtime.com, we find much here

•Going out [only drinking tea and juice, guys..]

•Chatting about guys [they really screw us over]

•Colouring [Sesame Street is our personal fave]

•Planning a million different trips during reading week [like Six Flags.. in February]

•Watching YouTube fads [Jon Lajoie, Nigahiga, "Don't Touch Me I'm Scared" and taping a reaction.. more to come on that]

ex. our sexy sexy role model, Sexy Sax Man Sergio Flores

•Being overly interested in our crazy fish [Dartangan Kumar's water really needs to be changed.. after Grey's.. before my assignment..]

•Waiting for Nyan Cat to change from a toast to a pop-tart 

We haven't gotten to this remarkable feat of.. not nature..

•Singing 'Fresh Prince of Belair' theme [Will Smith in his prime]

•Drool over hot guys [objectifying, I know..]

•Watching people outside our window [making out, missing their bus, ect.]

oh, and..

•Cramming and starting essays last minute after all of this is complete

ps. I should probably start reviewing for my midterm.. tomorrow..