Tired of Country Yet? NOPE

It's been a week since I've been in Falcon and loving the emptiness of it. Though the people I'm staying with have told me that there used to be more empty fields than there are now. In the past, six years more houses and stores have been built surrounding Colorado Springs.

This miniature city, Colorado Springs, reminds me of Manchester, CT or maybe Waterbury. So many stores and literally everything you could want you'll find within a 15 minute radius. I like how the house I'm in is in the countryside yet less than 2 minutes down the road, there's a Walmart. Back in CT, it took us 15 minutes or more to the nearest Walmart. Though we did have a grocery store less than 2 minutes away. I could definitely get used to this!

A few days ago, a friend of mine came to visit! So excited! We hadn't seen each other since IC graduation. We went to Garden of the Gods and Seven Falls. Though getting to the Seven Falls proved to be quite a ride. We didn't want to wait for the shuttle since we weren't sure when the rain would start so we decided to drive there and park closer. Well, we followed the signs and then came up upon a dirt road. Unsure what to do, we continued up the dirt road. Well.....this road twisted and dipped and ascended. There were quite a few potholes as well. However, the view was gorgeous! After a good twenty minutes on this road, we see a map and got out to look at it. From my perspective, since it didn't have any landmarks other than this peak and that peak, I deduced that we should keep going since it looked like we didn't have that much farther to go before we would go down the mountain. About 5 minutes later, we came upon a ranch. There we asked whether or not we were close to Seven Falls. He shook his head sadly. It was way back where we started. Clearly, the state of CO needs to have clearer signs!

So after twisting and turning yet again down the mountain with stops to take pictures we found ourselves where we began. However, my friend's GPS was taking us all over town. So I turned mine on. I asked her while we were following mine, "If mine leads us somewhere else other than our destination, what do you want to do?" At this point, it's 4 pm in the afternoon and we started this trek around 2:30. Well, have dinner! Luckily, we found it and had an amazing time minus, the climbing up to get closer to the waterfall. I suggest you workout a little more before going up there :D

The End but Wait.....

Well.....camp has officially ended. Family Camp was different yet fun. The kids were great and I loved seeing the eagerness from the parents. Always asking questions is one of the best ways to learn anything. Each family had it's unique inner-family drama of course but when they worked together, everything fell into place. I wish my parents had access to this type of program. I honestly think we all would have benefited better. Maybe my life wouldn't have been catastrophic at times. Who knows what if really, but in the end as one staff member put it, "We all have a different path. We all have different gifts. Maybe we find it, maybe we don't but the point is to keep going and not give up." God has put us here for a reason and created each other for a reason. He didn't design us to be alone. He knows we need companionship, love, acceptance, encouragement and all the rest. Life is tough even for the hearing world, but we have a bond as Deaf people and that bond is something to hold on to.

People have asked me if I'm excited to be done and I reply with "1/2 and 1/2." I'm super happy to be done with the drama, the living on top of each other, the conversations that I have no desire to be a part of, disrespect from both kids as well as just sleeping in a bunk bed. I'm looking forward to a new chapter, new beginning, new town and hopefully new friends.

It's been an amazing, hard, challenging, interesting ride here at Aspen. I didn't die on a mountain so that fear hadn't come to pass :D So I'm eternally grateful to have been around people like me. I still wish I had grown up in this atmosphere but can't change the past. I have no idea what God's plan is or why he had me mainstreamed instead of at ASD, but I know He knows best and I have to keep trusting He knows what He's doing regardless if I can barely see it.

Getting it Done

So the end of camp is slowly creeping up on us staff....we are half ready to leave and half sad we have to say goodbye. Today the campers are rafting and going to the Hot Springs, both of which they are seriously excited about. All the staff has gone a bunch of times so none of us are excited ourselves, but we are glad the kids get a chance to experience this.

The elementary by far has been a great group to work with. Love their smiles, energy but they do lack the will sometimes. We tell them they can do something and they reply with they can't. Have they tried before? Nope. They just have it in their heads that they are incapable of doing something...... You never know until you try. Isn't that the saying?

Thank goodness the sun has been nice to us Aspen Camp people this past week because the weeks with the middle schoolers have been nothing but rain! Now it's still cool in the mornings but not as freezing as before. Finally, feels like summer again! No different that the weather I left behind in CT. Though people have told me it's humid out there now. HAHAHAHAHA I'd rather have rain than humidity.

So far so great, though excited for next week!