Weekends make me tired...

I’ve been meaning to post for over a week…now I wish I would have done that because now I forget a lot!

Let me begin where I would have started…last weekend. We try to have events planned for the entire program on Saturdays. Last Saturday we decided to start with a big bang…hike the tallest point in Vermont…Mt. Mansfield. No problem, I like to hike. Well, at least I thought I liked to hike. People say that when you turn 30, your body just can’t do the same things it used to. Maybe that’s what can explain why the mountain dominated me! I made it to the top and was elated (as you can see in the picture with the team leader women). I figured the worst was over. Wrong. Somehow the hike down was not what I expected..isn’t it supposed to be easier? I can’t say I had the best attitude…and vowed I’d never, ever hike it again (just for the record, I’d totally do it again now that I forget what the pain felt like. I’d do a few things differently….simple things, like eat a real breakfast before I decide to hike a mountain.). There were two good things about the hike down: realizing how amazing it was that I actually got up that thing and hiking with the students…they helped me so much! So humbling and so good! I love that a group our size all did something that was so difficult for so many of us…and we couldn’t have done it alone. We needed each other. If we didn’t have each other, many of us would have given up long before we reached our goal.

Today we spent the day doing service projects. We did a ton of work outside for a local church (gardening, painting, fixing up a playground, cleaning the church, etc) and at a nursing home. As I worked alongside my friends, I thought about how amazing it was that this group of people were giving up their day to do work for others. They did it with a joyful heart. It again made me realize what an amazing group of people I am blessed to work with this summer. I left the day exhausted and need a nap…just like I did last week!