Things

Random things I miss about Texas…

-Obviously, my family…my nieces and nephew especially

-My church

-My car

-Warm balmy nights…nights in Texas where you can stay out without any kind of sweater or jacket, eat ice cream cones or go swimming and be perfectly warm.

-My pillow

-Guaranteed sunshine

-Real thunderstorms

-Bluebell Ice Cream

-College Station, TX

Random things I love about the North West

-The blueness of Coeur d’Alene Lake

-Being able to kayak for free on said lake

-My Estonian host family here in North Idaho

-Having my friends, the McNallys and Gordons, close by

-The friendliness of the people of this area

-Lilac trees and their scent (I’d never seen any until I came here)

-Seeing irises on a daily basis

-All the other blooming flowers and tress I see on the trails here that are unfamiliar to me

-That having the sun rise at 4:30 am is turning me into a morning person

-That the sun doesn’t set until after 9:00pm

-The low humidity here during the day

-All the numerous outdoor and recreational opportunities at my finger tips

“Being happy doesn't mean that everything is perfect. It means that you've decided to look beyond the imperfections.” -Unknown

First three weeks...

Every day is an adventure in North Idaho. That is what I keep telling myself. I have just completed the first three weeks of my internship with North Idaho College’s Outdoor Pursuits Program. So far, I have done everything from the down-and-dirty maintenance work, to making rental reservations, to helping teach kayaking classes, to planning a children’s camp…and so many other things in between. When I first got to Couer d’Alene, I was overwhelmed, feeling like I would never fall into a grove, that I would never find my rhythm here. I am happy to say that it is coming…slowly, but it is coming.

Every day is different here on the job. Some days I help manage the beachfront and rental area. Other days I am working in the office, organizing our equipment, and then other days, I just help teach class. No two days in the work week are identical. I have a love/hate relationship with routines…love them because I comfortably know what to expect, hate them because routine becomes maddeningly boring and minimizes the challenges I must face. When I was looking for an internship for this summer, I wanted to find something that would challenge me, something that would make me push myself to do new things. My internship gives me no other choice but to push myself beyond my comfort zone, every single day. It is hard. It is physically demanding. I ask myself, in the end, will it be worth it? I didn’t think so at first. But as I continue to push myself, as I keep learning new skills and expanding my experience, I am hopeful that I will remember my time here as a growth experience. As with any job, there are days I love it, and days I hate it. I keep something one of my professors said to me in the back of my mind…

Even in the worst of experiences, there are lessons to be learned, and there are benefits to be derived. Every experience you have is positive, even at the time that it time it appears negative, because it is a growth experience." - John Crompton

Time to grow!