I made it to 15!!!!!!!!!!

Whew!  Finally wrapping up this blog business.  Don't get me wrong, it's been delightful to read about all of the exciting internship adventures, but it feels good to mark one more thing off the 'Countdown to Graduation' list.  It's sort of hard to believe that my Decade of Learning is finally coming to an end.  I mean, I didn't intend for it to take 10 years to get a degree, but if there's one thing I've learned over the years, things don't always (or should I say - hardly ever!) go the way we plan.  I can't complain, though.  Wherever my road has led, I've had a blast and met so many wonderful people (like each of you!!) and experienced many wonderful things.  

So from here, I don't really know what I'm going to do.  All I know is that I love the adventure of living and serving and I truly believe God has a plan for each of us and that plan is played out day to day.  I hope no matter what I do or where I go, following Christ will be my top priority. Where I work, how much money I make, do I own, do I rent, do I have a cool car, do I get promoted, do I get laid off (again!), those things are all just details that I'm not going to stress. I want to live and embrace every moment and I pray you all do the same.  Life is way too short to sweat the small stuff and live only for material gain and personal promotion.  Do something for someone else everyday.  You'll be glad you did!  

Good luck to everyone.  You have truly accomplished something amazing!    

Meeting with the Boss

I'm wrapping up my first week of unemployment!  It's hard to believe how fast my internship went.  I had a great time, but it has been so nice to relax and catch up with friends, errands, and sleep.  Most interesting of my catching up was the accomplishment of a homework assignment that required me to interview a high level manager.  Ironically, I managed to get an appointment with Becky Benna, Director of Glendale Parks & Rec.  She was very gracious to spend about 30 minutes with me discussing her position and responsibilities.  We covered a lot of ground in those few short minutes and I am glad to have had the chance to meet with her.  I thought it was great to get her perspective on what I had been working in for the last few months.  I loved when she talked about what she loves most about her job.  She absolutely lit up like a kid on Christmas morning explaining how it's seeing the fruit of the organization's labor that keeps her going.  She loves seeing kids getting to participate in activities that they usually wouldn't get to even try.  She loves her job.  It was easy to see.  I don't know if I will be a parks and rec lifer, but whatever I do, I hope I light up when I tell someone about what I do.  That's pretty priceless.  :)   

Some of the nicest people...

I can't remember if I've mentioned this before, but my favorite thing about my internship is getting to meet some of the nicest people.  First of all, they gave me the opportunity to intern with them.  Training, helping, guiding, and teaching an intern takes time.  Many of the people I have been working with took seriously the responsibility to impart their wisdom and experience to me.  Collectively, they have years in the field and I am so grateful that they have share their knowledge with me.  

But even more than professionally, I appreciate their investment in me personally.  They have really been so kind.  I mean, most recreation people tend to have a fun streak and I have thoroughly enjoyed the funness (is that a word??) of my internship.  It has been great to get to know my co-workers and learn about their lives.  It's funny how life brings people together and how we cross each others' paths and impact each others' lives even if only for a short time.    

Plan of Action

So I had my site visit with Sara last week.  It went well.  Afterwards, I was working on my "Action Plan" assignment.  One of my topics was my plan for after graduation and I have to admit - my plan has changed in the recent months, mostly due to the lack of job opportunities.  I don't know about you guys, but I'm looking for jobs everyday and not finding an abundance of opportunities that interest me.  I feel like I'm going to end up settling for something just to pay the bills, which will be ok for a while.  Hopefully things will turn around soon.  :) 

So much to say!

Things keep coming up that I think I should blog about but I forget or I don't have time right away so I'm going to write about a couple of random things today.  Cool?  Cool.  

My first incident report.  I was working in the Turtle Club (the facility day care room) as I do every Friday morning.  The kids and I were having a good old time and one of the kids started pushing this little red plastic wagon.  He wasn't really doing anything wrong - he just tripped on the carpet and whacked his chin on the ground.  He ended up with a bump and a yucky rug burn.  Since I had other kids, I called one of the managers to help me take care of him.  We got him an ice pack and within a few minutes he was fine and ready to play again.  So, not a huge deal, but since we gave him treatment (the ice pack) we had to fill out a report.  Fortunately the form is very short and didn't take to long to fill out.  Best of all...little guy turned out to be ok.

Family Fun Night.  This an annual event happened last Friday night.  It is a low-cost event that allows families to play together at the rec center.  They could climb the rock wall, play pool, air hockey, ping-pong, basketball, volleyball, eat snacks, color, and play a variety of board games.  Overall, the families seemed to have a good time and many people expressed appreciation for the fun, low-cost event.   I thought it was great to see families having fun together and I think that it would work as a regular event.  Maybe not every week or even every month, but more than once a year would be fun!     

That's all for this post.  I have to save some things for future posts even though I'm sure everybody reading this wishes I would go on and on and on and on and.....     

On Second Thought...

I decided to make a 2nd post tonight.  I wanted to talk about spring break week, which I did in my previous post. However, I also worked at the Folk and Heritage Festival all day on Saturday.  This was an old timey kind of event at Sahuaro Ranch Park in Glendale.  I was assigned to the kids crafts booth where we helped kids may horse-sickles (check out my horse-sickle in the pic!) and necklaces.  These were simple crafts that were fun for the kids and parents!  Mostly the kids could do them on their own, but I got to help a few with cutting and finding particular pieces to add to their necklaces.  

Overall it was a good day.  It was pretty toasty outside but we were under a canopy and there was a cool breeze.  It wasn't terribly busy so we were able to take breaks, which was nice because that gave me time to make it over to the "real" bathrooms rather than having to use the stinky port-a-potties.  Ick!  I hate those things!  So small and really, even their magic chemicals don't cover the stench, especially when it's nearly 90 degrees!  I digress...

Spring Break!!

Well, first of all, my spring break was great!  I went to Missouri and Kentucky to visit friends and family.  I had a blast and was a little sad to have to come back to AZ, but I'm done being sad and I'm ready to get this semester finished up.  

Ironically, this blog post is not about my spring break, but rather I'm writing about Deer Valley School District spring break.  "Why?" you may ask...well...let me tell you!  DV High School is just down the street from FRAC (my internship site) so many of their students visit us on a regular basis.  Since it was spring break last week, we had LOTS of kids roaming FRAC all week.  As one might expect, the kids tend to sleep in and then make their way to the fitness center sometime after noon.  Most of the ones who came last week were boys coming to play basketball in the gym.  Others hung out in the activity room and lobby. Occasionally, some end up "hanging out" behind the center and we have to go crash their kissy kissy party!  

The great part about this week is I got to see the full-time coordinators and programmers sharing the increased need for facility supervision.  Everybody was sharing time in the different programming areas making sure people were following the rules and being safe.  It's a good reminder that no matter how big your job is, if you work at a rec center, at some point in time, you'll end up in the gym yelling at people to stop hanging on the rim.  Honestly, I think the coordinators and programmers like to get out of the office and mix up their day a bit. 

Another great thing about spring break week was that I got meet employees from other Glendale P&R sites who came in to help manage the crowds.  While we worked together, I learned about their sites and programs.  There's some pretty cool stuff going on in Glendale Parks and Rec!  

Overall, I'd say it was a great week!  :)