Six weeks of living with 10 other people,  crawling under houses, painting, hanging drywall, flooring and a hundred other things went a lot faster than expected.  By the time we were back in Colorado and one of the other team leaders said "six weeks ago" I had to think twice, it felt like I had only just left the Aurora campus, and there I was back in the thick of it.  I had no expectations going into my first round of service with NCCC, which is probably part of the reason it went so swimmingly.  I'm not saying there were no issues, bouts of exhaustion and frustration were inevitable, but it was an eventful six weeks, filled with loads of laughter and smiles to counter the moans and groans. 

I've began to lose count of the number of places I've been told that this would be the place I'd build friendships to last a lifetime.  First it was high school, but no those friends won't last, my real friends were supposed to be found during the transitive years of my life spent at UW-La Crosse, college roommates and classmates, those would be the people that stuck.  Then I grew up, got a job and moved half a world away, a place where I didn't expect to find friends, but now seven years later have people in my life I can't imagine being without.  You may be seeing a trend here, my picking up and rearranging  life, shuffling the daily occurrences, throwing in new challenges and obstacles, but the great thing about all of this is that with each new change comes a whole new set of friendships.  In the first few weeks of my service, back in the days of training at our campus in Aurora, I began to doubt how close I would grow to my counterparts, something felt lacking, but the last six weeks have changed all of that, and I now know I've let some people into my life that will remain for years to come. 

Throughout all the training we endured, lectures on leadership, diversity, team management and professionalism, there was little conversation around reward.  Education award and other work related benefits, sure, but not the emotional reward we would all would receive throughout the round.  Having traveled, taught and volunteered before and knowing the feeling of satisfaction and accomplishment after serving a community, that was a main factor in my applying to Americorps NCCC in the first place.  After weeks of training, meeting and getting to know corps members and then traveling 16+ hours to Texas, my thoughts of service and reward had fallen by the wayside.  I knew the reason I was there, the work I was supposed to be doing, but I couldn't imagine how it would be received by the community.  In short, it was amazing.