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!

Breathing

Elementary are here and I feel a little bit more free"er" because more often that not the middle schoolers who were here a few days ago were a headache. Some I will say were great to work with, most just made me shake my head every two seconds. The kids that are at camp now are a blast and have wild imaginations. I don't remember much being an eight year old but I do miss the simple life they have. Their biggest worry is probably......will I get to sit next to my best friend at lunch today? Pfft! Big deal.

As camp is almost done for us seasonal staff, we can feel the heaviness in the air. Always tired. Always having our heads drooping. Our laughter isn't quite as boisterous as before. We haven't torn each other apart which is a good thing but I for one am done with the camp life. Bunk beds are only fun for so long.

I love the fact that I've been able to send postcards to my family, friends and church family. It's been great "seeing" their reactions through text messages. Can't wait to send the last few next week!!!

Driving on Overload

Summer Camp is officially halfway over and I'm feeling overwhelmed most days. Partly because of the amount of kids here right now and because how many of them don't listen very well much less understand and implement the word "respect" in their lives. It's sad really.

The situation makes me think of a lot about raising kids. I wonder how the kids with such bad attitudes got to where they are now, middle schoolers. Granted, all I know about raising kids is from what my parents have said and what I've read/heard from others. In my perspective, it starts with the parents or whoever raises them. If the parents don't take the time to invest in their children's lives, show them what respect looks like, punish them when needed, love them all the time and cultivate their eager minds then they can potentially grow up to be too proud, inconsiderate and have a lack of awareness of other's feelings.

I've seen this first hand where kids who grow up without feeling loved or appreciated in turn don't give back. For me, when I was going through a tough time in high school I didn't feel appreciated at all. Which led me to crawl into a shell and not trust anyone. I didn't care about anything because no one cared to hear my opinion on anything. I just wanted to be left alone.

Anyways, to end this on a positive note camp has had it's interesting turns. For example, being startled by a deer less than 20 feet from me early in the morning. Kids have jumped up and down saying that they are reserving a seat for me at dinner. (Didn't realized I was liked so much.) Kids teasing me and trying to scare me. (Though I feel like kids just like to do that to older people....)

So far so good in the life of a new Coloradoian :)

First Week of Camp

Goodness O Goodness! I've made it to a full week with campers!!!!!! I still feel that kids are beyond frustrating. A camper the other day asked me, "Do you want kids?" I replied, "I don't even know if I want any." It's the truth. I'm around so many kids all the time, it's hard to think about my own someday. Kids don't listen, they misbehave constantly, they give me a headache some days and they just have no respect. I have a hard time dealing with that sometimes. Granted, I will start teaching them at a young age what respect means and hold them to it!

On a brighter note, camp is going pretty well. Tomorrow we are taking them backpacking. Don't really want to go but I have the whole next week off cause that week is backpacking WEEK verses tomorrow through Friday is only two nights :) I think I can find the silver lining in that!

The job itself it going nicely, I like my coworkers and my bosses so far. One is ridiculous but the good kind. I've become friends with most everyone and can get along with them alright. Sometimes there are conflicts but so far we've been able to resolve them rather quickly. I like this gang.

I was sick for the last three days because of a cold. Lucky me. I realized the reason why it wasn't going away was because I thought my medicine lasted longer than it actually did; only four hours. Go figure. Now, I'm alright but not quite 100%. Hopefully, I won't die on this backpacking trip. SO PRAYYYYY!

As for Colorado in general, I really can see myself living here. Though now I really anxious to explore not only other areas in this state but other cities and states like Seattle, Portland, Omaha, Chicago and dip down into NM and TX! We shall see!!!! :)

New Experiences

So....I climbed a mountain. No, not one of those silly hills in CT, a real live green rocky mountain! No joke. I seriously thought we climbed a million feet up but in reality only ten thousand. When we got halfway, I was thinking, "You're joking! This is only the halfway spot?" Oh boy, we got a ways to go still. The view was spectacular when we arrived at the camp site but the trek.....oh goodness.

While we were up there in tents, it rained. I mean RAINED, big fat droplets along with thunder that sounded like someone dropped a huge metal bowl right next to you. One of the other tents had to be moved because a puddle decided to form underneath. Thank goodness we didn't have to move ours. I was exhausted and so I took a long nap.

Glad someone woke me up for dinner but was not happy that it was indeed still raining. Sigh. We had the most interesting food....freeze dried. Yeah, I had freeze dried lasagna. All I can honestly say is that it was interesting. Would I volunteer to have it again...NOPE. But it didn't make me gag. Unless I didn't gag because I was starving. Who knows.

Now I've been camping in the woods before with family and my Girl Scout troop but it was nothing compared to this. Nada. Carrying a huge backpack up a mountain for three hours is not my idea of a good time. No, I'd rather read. But regardless of my sweaty tired experience climbing a real mountain and camping out on it, I have to say seeing God's creation up close like this is breathtaking.