East to West and Back Again: A Roadtrip Story

have to say that this was one of the things on my list that I thought wouldn't happen. It takes quite the effort to get four people on the same page and in one car for eight-ten days. 

This entire hair brain idea came from watching the food network, yea you read that right. Marge and I were hungry watching some show about ribs and I yelled out "I want to eat my way across the country".  Marge being the awesome friend she is said "LET'S do it!" and the rest my friends is history. We soon added two more X alums Daniel and Shajena and the journey began.  We went from DC all the way to California with stops all along the South. I saw amazing sites and met amazing people and my life is so much better for it.

 Because this road trip is such a huge part of my life and this summer I have decided to break this post up into a couple of smaller posts instead of an Odyssey of a story. The next couple of days will be dedicated to a portion of the trip where I can chronicle the journey in great detail. If I do not get to do anything else on my list this year I am beyond thrilled that I got to do this with my best friends. 

With Every Heart Beat

This past weekend was the 5k walk/run for the American Heart Association. We gathered both generations of X members plus some friends and raised money to help fight heart disease. The walk was great, a little cold but we all had such a great time. We walked in love and happiness and celebrated some awesome dads. Together we raised just about $3000 dollars for the American Heart Association which is absolutely amazing! Thank you to everyone who donated!

As you know I spent the last two years working for City Year and those two years were two of the most life changing years of my life. I got to work with amazing people and did so much in such a short time.  I have posted about my experience before and I probably will again because those people mean the world to me. I fully expect to experience all of my teammate’s weddings and have them experience mine. My teammates from my corps year and I often discuss how it came to be that we ended up with each other; the only answer I have is magic! We were absolutely magical because we all loved each other so fast, you would have thought we knew each other for years. Simply, we became a family.  We fought like a family, laughed, loved and cried as a family. It was even more special for me to bring X 2.0 into that family!

I will often say that it took tragedy to truly forge the special bond that we had. During my corps year two of my teammates lost their dads to sudden heart attacks; those are days you never forget. You remember where you were, what you were wearing what the air smelled like; it’s almost like you were taping and can play it back at any time.  So many things in this city are reminders and send me hurtling back in time to those days. For Shannon we were on Thanksgiving break and he experienced his loss away from us but it was still heart breaking for me, who was miles away. To know Shannon is to know an amazing person but most importantly an amazing MAN; he is smart, quiet, thoughtful and kind. I always feel a sense of calm in his presences and seek his ear for guidance. He has become a brother to me and it was hard to see this man struggle in his thoughts. He asked us to go about business as usual and he would let us know when he needed us, I can only imagine it must have been a comfort to him. His was always the hand I could expect to squeeze under the table or the one to pass me a note {preferably one with a robot} during a rough meeting just to make me smile and I remember just wanting to be that for him in his loss.

You Never Realize What You Have Until It's Gone

First I want to say that no one has died (I realize the title of this post is a bit ambiguous)! All of this talk and excitement that has been generated due to my  approaching (very fast approaching) 27th birthday has really allowed me to think about my life and who I am as a person. I think for the very first time I am comfortable in my own skin and even though I question my position in life I have few regrets. I've learned to feel beautiful in my {plus-sized} jeans but more importantly to be proud of the voice that I have learned to use. I bet you are wondering where this sudden rush of joy and strong fierce attitude has come from? It is simple: it came from a realization of exactly how lucky I am due to my experiences. Let me try and make some sense!

Background 

I spent the last two years working for an AmeriCorps program called City Year. I worked full-time in schools tutoring kids. City Year is a program that is all over the country and it uses service to make a positive change. My job was hard. The kids were rough, the hours were long, and the pay....well let's just say non-existent. However the things that I gained from my time with City Year are numerous and have infinite value. I can't put a price tag on my experiences. I have to say that I made some of the best friends of my entire life in this program. Working every day in tough settings with the same people day to day really does something to a person. I love my team mates more than words can say. The kids (as bad as they were) changed me in ways that were more than physical. Yes I dropped 2 pants sizes due to running up and down flights of stairs in heavy ass timbs and pants made of some material that did not allow for circulation of air but those were all physical. The biggest changes were all inward. My experiences in the school and with my team helped me become a much more dynamic person.  I fell in love for the first time, that may not sound like a big deal but falling in love wasn't something I thought I would do EVER. I figured I would be destined to live a life of spinsterhood playing the role of bridesmaid and making a home with my dogs. But my students allowed me to open my heart and feel for the first time and even though that "relationship"did not end well I do not regret any of the decisions I made in it. I will take the lessons learned from him and it and move on to the next one. The thing that is important here is that it HAPPENED, I allowed myself to go there and I was happy.

the 09-10 X team at the White House

Pool fun with the 10-11 Xers