On Monday, August 26th,
the FEMA Corps Southern Region campus in Vicksburg, Mississippi welcomed its
newest 241 residents/employees. Team Green (aka all the wonderful people that
just completed Team Leader Training with me) was an integral part of the
welcoming committee. Some of us rode shuttles to bring the recently landed
young adults to their new home, some of us unloaded luggage, directed paperwork
fill-out, gave campus tours, prepared food, entertained, shuttled people to
Walmart, or simply smiled at just about every
person we saw. No matter what our role was that day—Team Leader, newly arrived
Corps member, staff—it was exhausting in the most positive of ways.
Since then, as it has been a
number of days since the 26th, a lot of the ins and outs of campus,
Corps Training Institute (CTI), expectations, and team bonding activities have taken place. The awesome, beautiful,
great thing about this program is that all 240ish Corps members are broken down
into small 6 to 9 person groups to help organize better…but mostly to create a
little support system right off the bat. Here is the rough part though: AmeriCorps
NCCC FEMA Corps is a team-based
program…and these are not our permanent teams. On Monday, I was introduced to eight
intelligent, anxious, and open-hearted young adults and it is very likely that
every one of us will be split up from one another. It’s just the nature of the
program…but that doesn’t make it any less heartbreaking.
Through my years of experience in
leadership roles, I have fallen into the caring, naggy,
I-want-everyone-to-feel-comfortable-and-at-home, over-protective mother
category of leadership. My role with this temporary team is absolutely no
different. My greatest challenge these past few days hasn’t been about finding
my alone time or making sure everyone fits in or everyone is getting to the
right places at the right time. My greatest challenge is not falling in love
with these talented and motivated young adults that I have the pleasure of
having on my temporary team. Do you know how hard that is for me?? When we have breaks during the day, I usually
just encourage them to take a nap, have some alone time, mingle with other
groups, or go exploring because I don’t want to get too attached. It is
horribly selfish, I know, but I just really don’t want to get hurt. When I
accepted this job, when I got off the plane in Mississippi, and when I took my
first steps onto this campus, I told myself that I would try to have NO
expectations. In seven days, I will be assigned my permanent team--I do not
want to expect to have the same individuals I have now, I do not want to expect
that I will get along with my new team as well as this one, I do not want to
expect that things will run smoothly. The moment I get my hopes up and guard
down is when it is possible for me to be disappointed. I do not want to be
disappointed in anything with this program, especially if I am perfectly capable
of managing my expectations. I guess the bright side is…there is absolutely
nothing stopping me from continuing to be my temp team’s mentor (or motherly
figure) even after a permanent team is in place. That’s actually still a really
awesome opportunity now that I think about it, haha.
So that is what has been going on
over here—a struggle between leadership, friendship, motherliness, and getting
too attached! It’s a challenge…but if I don’t find the perfect combination with
this team…hopefully I’ll find it with the permanent one I’m put into in just
seven short days. Until then, I’m keeping an open mind and an open heart. I
know how lucky I am to have met the individuals I have already…I know next week
will only be just as wonderful. J
Currently, as in, in-this-exact-moment, I am on Team Leader Duty for the night. Since this is a
residential program and there are a lot of young people living together, the
Team Leaders are required to patrol the campus and be on call 24/7. Tonight is
my night. While I am exhausted, I am really enjoying myself: I get to spend
time with one of my fellow Team Leaders, I have the opportunity to update my
blog (yay for all of us!), I get to read for pleasure for a bit, and I just get
time to reflect on this entire experience thus far—uninterrupted. Down-time,
and especially down-time for me, is a precious commodity that I have no intention
of wasting or abusing. Gotta take it where I can get it!
Hopefully these posts are giving
you a decent idea of what is going on over here. If you want to know more or
want me to delve into a topic deeper, please let me know! I love talking, I
love writing, and I love my job…I’m sure I’ll have plenty to say…so ask
away! J
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