Before Leaving

Hey Everyone,

I decided that I would start a blog for everyone to read up on my adventures in New Haven and in the the North Eastern parts of the United States in general. I hope that this will allow you to see all of the stories and even help myself keep track of all the excitement and stories that I am anticipating.

For those of you who may not be completely aware, this summer (June - August 15) I have an internship in New Haven, CT. I have never been there nor do I know very much about it. I thought I would share the little things that I do know with you now. I am leaving Monday (June 1st) in the morning to drive to Washington DC. Well, actually Laurel, MD where I will be staying one night at a hotel. I will actually get to see my girlfriend, Jessica (whom I haven't seen since the end of April - one month seems like a lifetime) since she will be staying with her parents in the same Hotel. Jessica was selected to do the same internship except in Boston. (She likes to copy me - Just kiding, kind of...) From there, we will travel to Howard University (Downtown DC) where we will have training through the end of the week. After that, Jessica and I will be headed up to Annville, PA where Katie, a friend of ours lives and will be staying with her a day or two. (not sure how long). Then we will head further up north... I will be going to New Haven and Jessica to Boston.

I will actually be staying with a single guy from the New Haven Vineyard, Ron Fisher. He has graciously opened up his house for me to stay with him for the length of the internship. It is truly a sign of true hospitality. I will then say goodbye to Jessica as she heads on to Boston where she will be doing her internship, as I already said. She will be staying with a friend of her sister whom she knew in Boston.

You may be wondering at this point... Why are you going to New Haven? What will you be doing...? To answer some of these questions - I am not completely sure. I do not have all the details, but I am very excited with those that I do have. I will be working out of an office (Mon-Fri 9-6) helping lower-income and homeless individuals to find housing, employment, and hopefully other social and medical services. The program is called National Student Partnerships (see this website for a little more info: http://nspnet.org/about/index.htm) and is somehow associated with Americorps (I think...) I will also be attending meetings in the city addressing the needs with poverty (or at least that is what the job description tells me). As I said, I am do not know much more than that. In fact, when people have been asking me what exactly I will be doing, I tell them just what I described and then am stuck with saying "and the rest I will figure out" or something of the sort.

While that may explain the what, and it may be impossible to explain the why, I will give it a shot. I felt myself wanting to do something meaningful with my summer, but also something that would prepare me for making a lasting impact on people's lives while giving me practical means of doing so. I began looking for missions internships and found myself deeply disappointed. To my many hours of internet browsing and emails with various mission organizations, all I was discovering were mission experiences. While these do have their benefits, I knew that this was not what I was looking for. I wanted something that will stretch me, acquaint me with something new and such. Jessica suggested that I look into this as she found it online and said that it sounded like something I would want to do. I immediately (a couple weeks later) started applying and to make a much longer story shorter, I had an interview over the phone and was hired. Oh yeah, not to over-spiritualize this or whatever, but I feel like it all worked out in some weird way for some reason(s). But then again, there is almost always (if not always) something worth learning from everything that life offers us. It was only at the last second (literally at the last second, i changed my top three choices of locations to work at in order to include New Haven at my number 3 in my email to the organization) that I selected the New Haven office as one of my choices. As it worked out, I found a free place to stay (thank you God) whereas if I were somewhere else, I don't know that I would have. Either way, I am very excited to be doing what I will be doing. I am excited to get to know more people and have them contribute to my changing perspective. I have noticed over the past year that in getting to know people (especially people deeply submersed in real life like those living on the streets and those facing life's difficult struggles on a daily basis) they allow you to see an aspect of life that is different from your own (or my own, rather).

I hope you guys (ya'll, for the readers from the south - not sure if I spelled that correctly, my apologies) enjoy hearing about my story. I would love to hear your comments and such and even hope that this might be a place to stimulate discussion about life's bigger issues. Who knows how it will end up.