2009 all-stars

I’ve been home for a week now. It is nice rest in a queen size bed again, but it’s difficult to fall asleep without the sound of Heather’s fan and exhaustion driven giggle-fits with Erin. I miss Mariah saying “five more minutes” when I wake her up in the morning.

I’ve been meaning to write a blog about the end of the summer for a while, but honestly it’s been really difficult. Asking me to blog about the last three months is like asking someone who found faith where they found it at, and what it looked like. It’s not possible for me to do it any justice at all.

I wrote this poem last semester for a class I took called "seminar on self growth." The class was basically about taking your past and claiming it unapologetically. I learned a lot about myself, and this poem was the synopsis of that discovery, so I thought I'd share it with you all. The assignment was to write an "I am from" poem and then to read it to our classmates.

Minne-snow-ta TLT conference!
The Minnesota teen conference was so refreshing. Prior to Minnesota, It had been a month since I did a teen conference, and I really missed having the opportunity to connect with youth. Minnesota reinforced why I missed it so much.

Lately I’ve been overwhelmed with gratitude. I think of what people have done for me and it’s beyond my comprehension. Why me? Why do they have more faith in me than I have in myself? Am I a phony, fooling people into seeing potential in me despite the fact that there isn’t any? No.

Oregon was the first conference the 2009 fosterclub all-stars facilitated, and it was a humbling experience. I learned so much from all the youth, and I appreciated their willingness to help us newbies out. I was a tribal leader, and my youth settled on the group name of The Fighting Mongoose.