Why now?

     As my first post began, I am no good at this. I have a little tickle inside me that wants to journal, to allow me to write and in the future look back at what I was thinking, feeling, and doing in moments I know I will want to hold onto and inevitably forget. While journaling allows me to be more private, blogging allows me to share myself with friends and family that I unfortunately cannot be with all the time.

    With graduation comes the question "What's next?". I am grateful I have an answer to this question otherwise the conversation turns into an awkward fumbling of words and sideways glances that are all too uncomfortable. So my answer? In August I will begin a year of volunteer service through the Jesuit Volunteer Corps and moving to Syracuse, NY! I will be 9 hours from home, 4.5 hours from NYC, and 5 hours from Boston (where one of my best friends will be for grad school yay!). I will be serving at Samaritan Center which is a soup kitchen/food pantry for those in the community in need of a meal but more importantly a place where people can come and be accepted and embrace the unique community around them. I will be organizing the over-700 volunteers a month that come to assist with meal prep, organization/stocking the pantry, and of course serving meals. (I hope I get to eat the meals!) All of this information has been told to me by my future boss, the program coordinator for JVC, and from a former-JV who had the same position a few years ago. Samaritan Center will be undergoing a HUGE transition right around the time I begin working because they will be moving their facility to a brand new building and I will be assisting with the transition to ensure everyone still feels welcomed and the environment is friendly. I am anxious to begin but also quite nervous. 
     JVC offers me more than a wonderful work opportunity (essentially a 40-hour a week job that I don't get paid for); JVC is founded on four principles: community, spirituality, simple living, and social justice. I will live in a house with about 7 other people and we will each be given a $100 stipend each month for our own purposes and the little money we make at our separate jobs will be pooled together to pay for rent and groceries. We probably won't live in the best neighborhood, and definitely not a new up-to-date house, but we will have what we need and live through conversations and game nights instead of channel surfing and hours on the internet. 
     My year begins in August and ends the last day of July 2014. The point of the blog is to help me document my time in Syracuse, my happies, my sads, my smiles, my cries, etc. Also, it is for family and friends so they are able to stay updated on my happenings since I will have minimal communication (a form of simple living!). My goal is to add a picture/post each week but this is absolutely NOT a promise of that since I am still only working on an idea of what my life will be like. I am looking forward to this, I have the desire and the dedication and the time (for once!). I am listening to that little voice, the Spirit that is telling me to find something good and wonderful in each day and document it, for life is far to short to only count on the big moments.

Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.

-Robert Brault