The Last Day of CTI

Yesterday wrapped up the final day of Corps Training Institute (CTI) and FEMA Specific Training. And today marks 10 and ½ weeks of being here. Without a doubt, these past two and a half months have been the most challenging, tiresome, and gratifying weeks of my twenty-two-and-a-half years.  

Now I’ll share the information I know I have been dying to know since the moment I got here. Where is Bayou 6 going on their first assignment??

WINCHESTER, VIRGINIA

and

FEMA Headquarters in WASHINGTON, D.C.

The details are still a little bit sparse…but that’s the nature of the business—FEMA Flexible. We head North on the morning of Tuesday, October 8^th. I cannot begin to put my excitement into words…so I’ll save that for another post.

Here’s the real inspiration of this post: Last Night. On the night of October 4, 2013, after 4 weeks of getting to know all the good and bad parts of the TLs during Team Leader Training and 6 weeks of hearing each and every one of them complain, cry, and praise themselves and their Corps Members…we still loved each other enough to throw a kick-butt surprise birthday party and Team Green celebration. After a week of sneaky email threads, getting dressed up, and kidnapping the birthday boy the celebration was a complete success. We transformed the cafeteria into the scene of what looked like a small-scale high school prom, took hundreds of pictures, danced like complete fools, and spoke kind words about everyone in the room. It was the perfect end to the best ten and a half weeks of my life.

A few of the young recently graduated TL staff attended our rendezvous last night and kept saying “this is so funny” about our party. Of course, I was confused and quite curious so I asked them to indulge me in their reasoning. As a quick background, these three young staff have been TLs and/or working for AmeriCorps NCCC at the many campuses for the past four years. That means they have witnessed the dynamics of at least eight classes of Team Leaders. When they explained why they thought it was “funny” it was explained to me that they have never in all their years seen a group of 30 individuals as close as we are…even after all the trials and tribulations we’ve had over the past many weeks. Over the past 6 weeks of CTI, every staff member has shared how impressed they are by this class of Team Leaders…but it wasn’t until last night after hearing it from someone that had once been in my shoes…did it truly sink in. I don’t think the past few months and meetings of accolades have been boosts to our egos or false senses of hope…FEMA Corps Class 20 Team Leaders truly are some of the best leaders the Vicksburg campus has seen walk through their doors. I, nor any of the Team Leaders here, take this compliment or this responsibility lightly. We do and will put all our effort and our best feet forward now until the end of our term in June. I cannot wait to see and hear about my fellow Team Leaders and my Corps Members growth in the coming months.