Dear friends, readers, and Mom;
Let me begin by creating a picture of what is happening directly behind me. Eight truly magnificent humans are cuddled up on padded gymnastics mats, wrapped up in donated sleeping bags, hugging an over-sized ladybug pillow that we found in the teen room of the Alaska Spenard Recreation Center. Everyone is watching the 1994 snowy classic Iron Will on a projector screen that somebody figured out how to operate. The rest of the group is sitting in the sauna in the women's locker room happily toasting away. I am so incredibly content. It is only wednesday on my Alternative Spring Break trip to Anchorage, Alaska.
We have slept inside "multipurpose room" of the recreation center every night his week since we arrived at 2:00am at Anchorage Airport this past Sunday morning. We don't pay for room and board, we don't pay for the rental vans that truck us places. We pay for gas and food, and that wild and unpredictable plane ride. This is all possible because we are exchanging our UNH Spring Break for community service at the Fairview Recreation Center in Anchorage. This recreation center is teeming with bright and hopeful children that truly don't have a safe and comforting environment during the daytime hours. Michelle's good friend Chris, head of Anchorage Parks and Recreation, has been wholeheartedly giving and flexible this entire trip already given us the delicious taste of what Anchorage has to offer. After only working three days at both Fairview and Kincaid Recreation centers, some of the kids literally run and jump into my arms when I arrive in the morning. To sum it up quickly so far, I've taught some youngsters how to use the pottery wheel, or "throw", I helped teach a group of children how to cross country ski, (when my first time EVER cross country skiing was literally last night), spent 2 1/2 hours helping 15 kids build there own cardboard sled with ductape, markers, streamers. I've been a part of teaching lessons on adaptation, participation, whale anatomy, seed planting, cooperation, free painting, weaving, drawing, skiing, swimming, and clay modeling. I've done all community service, and I've only been in Alaska since Sunday. SUNDAY.
I can imagine what I would be doing if I went home to Marshfield. I would absolutely be sleeping. I would catch up on some much needed sleep. I would shoot the shit with my dad, clean some random room in my house, spend a long afternoon with my mom ( hi mom!), and bug my gorgeous little sister, Al-sass. It would be a pleasant break with the Walter Family.
However, Spending the week on this Anchorage Service Trip I can certainly say that had I been at home, I would have been awake for probably half the time I have been awake on this service trip. And you know what? I'm damn glad I'm spending my conscious time with this incredible group of people so very flexible and willing to try new things. We have had very little idea of what each day will bring. Each and every moment is a surprise. My group and I spent Sunday nestled between the legs of ice blue glaciers inside the Alaskan Chugach Mountain range. On tuesday I spent my afternoon teaching a thirteen year old girl named Michaela how to make pottery on the spinning wheel. Right this moment, I hear my friends laughing at how helplessly cheesy and inspiring Iron Will is.
Thus far, my absolute favorite part of our Chem-Free Alternative Spring Break Trip to Anchorage is how hard I've laughed in the past couple of days. I'm pretty sure Eliza and I have collapsed in laughter at least four times a day. In the moments before I feel asleep after we finally settled in on Sunday, stressfull thoughts of my physics homework and calculus homework passed through my head. Yeah, I am going to get it done by the time it is due, but I have not thought of since. Truthfully, life doesn't have the capacity to always be entirely focused on deadlines. I'm in ALASKA, and who knows if I will every make it back here again? The math will get done, but for this finite week, laughter is louder than the numbers.
I don't know how to sign this blog,
Tay
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