Forrest, Claire, and Brian are three of the most incredible people you will probably ever come in contact with. And the reason they are so incredible is not what they've done to get here or why they are interested in the organization (although Brian's stories are pretty spellbinding), but rather that they get along well with me and each other. That is an accomplishment. There is nothing worse than dealing with people whom you don't like in the first place and then being forced into close proximity with them for an extended period of time. I look forward to our ridiculous times on the road.
To speak more generically, the house that we all live in is an absolute circus. If you've ever lived in community before, or tried anything similar to living with 59 other young people like yourself--not only living with them, but working with them, traveling with them, going out with them, cleaning with them, eating with them, and sleeping 8-12 per room--then you will have some idea what this is like. If not, let me tell you something:
- Get used to being dirty. There are only 4 bathrooms for 60 of us. If you thought sharing a bathroom with your sister who paints her face every morning was bad, try sharing one with on average 15 people
- Expect the unexpected. It sounds cliché, but none of us know each other yet and we have been constantly surprised by each other resulting in things like half-hour laughing fests in the grocery parking lot, dance parties to songs we've never heard, quoting our bosses for simple life matters like trying to touch a ceiling or going the wrong way on the highway, and even shaving teammates' heads at 1am on our balcony via extension cord wrapping to the side of the house. It's already been an adventure and I've only been here 3 days.
- Share everything early on. Nothing is worse than realizing, even after a couple days, how annoying something about a person is. Granted, we haven't yet discovered those things about anyone yet, but the time is coming.
- Label everything. It's not that we don't trust other people; it's that we just spent some of our good money on food and want to make sure that we get to eat it--that's all the money we have, really. We want to keep an eye on our possessions so we have them for the road. Sometimes we forget what is ours to begin with.
- and so, so much more.
INCREDIBLE! I'm so glad you're getting along well with the PNW team!!! Have fun in the house while you're there...sounds like there is the potential to have a lot of fun in between the frustrating times! <3
ReplyDelete