The Squeaky Wheel Gets The Oil

This summer has been so strange! I feel like it has been an extension of Spring, because it has not been warm at all, I haven't gone camping or anything outdoors and I have been in school since last week. All my friends are starting their Fall semesters while I am just beginning to plan my first Summer camping trip!

The most exciting part of the summer has definitely been my trip to Maryland. I took a week off in July to visit the East coast for a variety of events. It started out as a quick presentation for the youth involvement from Oregon with the planning and implementation of the National Youth in Transition Database (or NYTD). Every state was allowed to have three representatives come to the conference, and I made the cut! I tried to pass off the project to the OFYC coordinator, since she actually gets paid to do these things and was more likely to fit it in her schedule, but it didn't work out so I ended up traveling out of Oregon despite my vows to never get on a plane again.

Since I was going to be in the area, my mentor suggested I fly in a day early and attend the all-day forum for Independent Living coordinators. I agreed since it was just one day and it seemed like a good idea at the time (and Mark Courtney was rumored to make an appearance, which he did!), and then our friends at FosterClub heard I was going to be around. They took advantage of this opportunity and swung me an invite to the Senate Caucus on Foster Youth which was happening a couple days earlier. I was really pushing my limits when I agreed to go to this meeting (I would be insane to pass it up!) and I ended up taking a red eye to DC and literally leaving the airport straight for the caucus. I freshened up in the airport bathroom. Classy.

I think I got a total of 8 hours of sleep for the entire week I spent in Maryland. I was with the Fosterclub interns for most of the time, and I bounced from friends houses to friends hotel rooms while there. We ended up getting VIP tables at a Gala that week, where the Jacksons performed and Quinton Aaron attended. I met up with a lot of colleagues from Oregon and even a couple others I have met from other states. Mixing the work with the play was rather difficult, though. One night, a couple of us ditched the conference to spend about two hours at the Capitol, but it wasn't near enough time to actually enjoy it. Needless to say, I am definitely going to work my persuasive magic in convincing my parents we need to take a nice long family vacation to the East Coast!

I was happy to come back, though. I had to finish school and Saif's holiday, Ramadan, was about to begin. I decided I don't want to live on the East coast; the metro system is not for me and it's so humid and muggy. But I could settle for traveling their direction every now and then.

In more exciting news, I think I will actually graduate instead of apply for the PPPM major! The idea of it makes me so giddy and I just can't think about anything else! In a nutshell, an opportunity I could not refuse came to me a couple weeks ago, and if it all works out, I could graduate and move on to the next chapter. I would get to stay in Eugene and continue my OFYC chapter and my new mentor program, and I would be working in the field I love with the people I love. I won't know anything for sure until October, and there are a lot of risks, but I have faith that this will work out. I should know a little bit more by the end of the week!

Until then...

What Would You Do If You Knew You Could Not Fail?

I must have been pretty ambitious when I promised a bi-monthly update; perhaps a quarterly goal is more realistic.

There has been no biological family drama to be updated on, thank goodness! It's easier to be separated from the chaos when everyone is in their own state, and those who are in my state are pretty quiet. This just means that I need to prepare for whatever is coming next... Hopefully everything stays calm until at least after the holidays. I don't think I've had a drama-free Christmas since I was 18!

As of OFYC, well, it's kind of tense right now. I know that not running for a leadership position last March was the better decision because I have started my own projects and I am keeping myself busy in Eugene, but I still wonder whether it would have been much different if I kept my previous position. Most of our supporters still come to me as the group's leader, and I think that makes others uncomfortable (hence the tension). I still travel just as much and participate in the same way as I did before, and everything was fine until I left Children First last June. I don't know if I just didn't prepare myself for the loss of the control or if it is just a strange transition for everyone since leadership elections are such a new development for the project. Either way, I have decided not to enable anything and let the places fall where they may. And I've decided that I will talk to my mentor on Tuesday about the approach I should take.

Although any tension with OFYC should be settled right away, I can easily go in my own direction and let it resolve itself. I started an OFYC chapter in Eugene so we can get local youth motivated and involved right here in my own back yard. I met a great girl at the University who I think is going to be the key in organizing this chapter and moving forward. I don't think I would have been able to get this all going without her.

I also have my mentor project moving forward. It stalled over the summer while most of my supporters were on summer vacations, and since I was sick of waiting for help that I wasn't sure I would even get, I decided to just move forward and see what happens. I made fliers and an application, and I have a meeting with the dean of the students tomorrow to see what kind of support the University can provide. I would settle for a website and some lanyards... but anything else would obviously be greatly welcomed.