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.

11 Days in to National Foster Care Month

I made a deal with myself yesterday that I would blog twice a month for mental health reasons. My fear is that I will get caught up with the day-to-day frustrations, which causes distractions that I'm not going to allow myself to afford. In working on foster care policy in the last year, I've noticed that is one of two main aberrations that most child welfare professionals encounter in their work. It is so easy to be distracted by the details, so by taking a little bit of time each month to step back and focus on the big picture, I can avoid this restraint, or contention (or whatever we want to call it).

The other distraction I noticed was that there are so many adults involved in one case, that it's easy to assume one simple responsibility will be covered by someone else. The problem is that each adult is so busy that most adults assume most tasks fall under the responsibility of someone else, so nothing gets done and the youth falls through the cracks. I have been able to point this out as it happens during work groups and committee meetings, but I have also seen in happening within OFYC meetings which is something I think is really important to avoid if we really want to make a difference.

The point of this post, though, is to update my many readers (aka, myself and my foster parents in Arizona) about OFYC and the progress we have been making. The last time I posted a legitimate update was in November, and I have about seven drafts since then but none that are even close to coherent. I have gotten pretty distracted with my own life, to the point where I had to write in my calendar a reminder to update my blog... Hopefully that gives you a sense of how chaotic my life has been.

In November, I encountered some biological family drama. Any foster kid knows that drama is a very ambiguous term when it is used in the same sentence as "biological family." This incident involved an awkward funeral, and combining foster family with biological family which is risky and emotionally exhausting alone. Death is also not something I am too familiar with, and I am not sure I have even had a chance to react yet. Immediately following this drama was more drama involving the "other side" of the biologicals. I flew to Texas, which I thought would be a great place to relax and recover, but I was wrong. I'm not sure the word "wrong" even begins to encompass all that happened in Texas. Needless to say, I will not be going back any time soon (aka, ever).

I intended to post around Christmas about the holidays and my plans with OFYC, but I was too distracted and before I knew it, Winter Term began. During Winter Term, I set up an internship for 12 credits (or 32 hours) at Children First for Oregon, which is the nonprofit that OFYC is calling home for the time being. I finished out the term in March, which is the month that OFYC has leadership elections. I did not run, and I'm still deciding if that was a good decision or not. I'm certain that come Summer, I will be happy with my decision; it makes more sense in the long run because come August, I have my own projects I want to work on which I wouldn't be able to do as president of a state-wide project.

I started my internship at Children First right after this election and it has its ups and downs. I love having a full work day with different things to do, and the office is full of women who I get a long with really well. I have my own little cube with my own little desk and I do my own thing, so I feel very spoiled. Sometimes, working so much on foster care policy and being surrounded by all of it surfaces some things I have buried in the past but other than that, I love my work and all the challenges it brings.

I have done a lot of OFYC work as well. Within the last two months, I have been training the new leadership team, coordinating the National Foster Care Month events like the Duffle Bag Drive and the filmed project, and recreating the OFYC website. I have done a lot of other relatively smaller things, such as creating a workshop on Sex Trafficking in Oregon and different kinds of activities like that.

Anyway, I have a couple more weeks on this internship and then I will be back in Eugene working on classes. I have decided to apply for the PPPM major in the Fall and graduate in the Spring. That gives me a year to develop my mentor project on campus and if the pilot is successful then the timing will be perfect in implementing the project at the other major universities in Oregon.

6 Months Later...

I really need to update my blog.

Black Sheep

I always wanted to write a book...

The Law School Admission Test

I took it. I barely studied since it was my first time taking it. I ran out of time on every single section which vastly effected my score. Well, that could be a lie. Maybe the wrong questions were the ones I actually put thought into... I'm not sure that I can see which questions I got wrong. The plan was to retake the test in January, apply to law schools, finish my degree and move on to whichever school has enough sense to take me.

But, of course, I keep changing my plan. I learned that law schools like to see experience before they accept their students, and most law students don't go until they are 27. This would work out perfectly since I hate school and I'm disciplined enough to go back. I wouldn't actually use my degree until I was about 40 years old anyway when I work for UNICEF, so I don't need it right away.

Now I am considering a masters in public policy and nonprofit management. I added that major, which I didn't think through- it's 64 credits instead of 44. So now I have more time to take the LSAT. But if I don't enroll in law school within the next 5 years, taking the LSAT now is pointless. There are two schools I would love to go to: Georgetown for it's location (DC) and public policy program, and Boulder for it's dual JD for family law and public policy. Pamela wants to go to DC, so obviously that is my number one choice. I feel like I can't move forward without her. We share the same passion and dreams, so obviously I'd follow her anywhere. It's rare to find someone as supportive as she is.

On a side note, I really want to go to Russia. The OFYC had a meeting with Russian delegates to discuss their move toward a nationalized foster care system. We barely had enough time to get to the important details, but I made a Russian friend who has the same position as I have but in Russia, obviously. We rely on Google Translate to communicate through email, but it will work for now. She is the second from the left:


I have never wanted to leave the country more! This could also be due to the crap I have to deal with right now. All the sudden, it feels like everyone around me is just acting childish and resistant. Everything is being made into a huge problem. I ask for one email, and for some reason, it's a huge problem. If I want something done, I have to do it myself. If this is the position the OFYC is in right now, then I can't leave Oregon for a while. I don't trust anyone else but Pamela to lead them and I feel like if we take off too soon, the board will just fall apart. Even if someone did take over, I fear that it won't be done right.

So the OFYC is keeping me in Oregon for a couple more years. Saif, of course, is too. We didn't plan to separate for a couple more years when he finishes school. He has become rather convenient, and I was advised not to get comfortable with him but I did and it was rough but so worth it.

We've decided to go to Seattle for Thanksgiving. My friend lives there with her husband and her son. She drove to Salem to see me at the Governor's lunch and I'm so excited to meet her family! Saif and I will have a very nice, relaxing holiday so I'm excited to get out of Oregon, even if it is just an hour out.

The 2009 Oregon Governor Volunteer Awards

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in Starbucks studying for my Spanish finals when I recieved an email notification that I was the Outstanding Adult Volunteer Awardee of the statewide 2009 Oregon Governor Volunteer Awards! Rosemary always tells me about these things she nominates me for, so I immediatley called her but she had no idea what I was talking about. A couple days later, Pamela called me to tell me "some good news", and I discovered it was her that nominated me. I have never even heard of this award, nor have I ever dreamed of being recognized for the work I do. OFYC hardly seems like a job or "work" to me, and I would be lucky if it was my job. Here is what they wrote about me in their pamplet:

"As Chair of the newly formed advocacy group Oregon Foster Youth Connection (OFYC), Jamie has worked vigorously for the past two years to give voice to the over 15,000 Oregon children in foster care. Not so long ago, Jamie was a youth in foster care herself, moving from home to home in a system where it is easy to fall through the cracks. Now that she is out of foster care, Jamie leads OFYC on its mission to improve the foster care system through advocacy, activism and leadership.
"Recently, under Jamie’s leadership the OFYC was able to draft a bill that empowers foster youth to take control of the process in obtaining their driver’s education and license. Testimony by Jamie and other OFYC members to various legislative committees has also helped advance legislation that would give health care to youth aging out of foster care until age 21. Outside of the legislature, Jamie has worked closely with the Oregon Department of Human Services to ensure that there is a youth voice within all boards that affect the foster care system. Furthermore, Jamie is dedicated to teaching others to advocate for themselves and conducts youth trainings statewide to ensure that all members of OFYC have the tools and encouragement to be powerful advocates in their own communities."

It was surreal to read about myself; I'm not sure I have ever had this opportunity before. It doesn't seem like I have accomplished much in such a short amount of time, and perhaps this little blurb is a bit exxaggerated. I have so many plans for OFYC and the Oregon foster care system, that these things they mention seem so tedious. I can think of many others who deserve to be recognized for their hard work. It's the people you don't meet that need the most gratitute, because they are working so hard for you that you never see them.

They asked for a quote from me about volunteerism. All I could think about for the last few weeks was the night I visited Melissa at her sorority and how her sisters described "their philanthropy." It makes me want to throw up, and it distracted me from coming up with an original quote. I wanted to keep it short, humble, and personal. This is what I settled on (since they didn't give me much time):

“I believe volunteering for a cause you are passionate about is the most stimulating and fulfilling way to spend your time. When you do what you are passionate about, you become what you love, and the world changes. What a difference the world would be if everyone did what they loved!”

The song that is refereced on the right side of my page inspires me to keep doing what I love, and I wanted to inject that passion into this quote so that maybe those who read it would be inspired to do what they love as well. I wanted to tell the world that you don't have to have a job you hate. So many people are blinded by finances and commutes, but I'm sure if you have a passion, there is a way to fulfill it.

The luncheon is coming up, and I want to invite everyone!