Time Flies When You Are Having Fun

Wow...I haven't posted anything in a super long time. I haven't been slacking, I promise! I have actually been super busy. School, work, nap...repeat. I feel like that is my life at the moment. I do occasionally throw some food into the mix just to keep me on my toes.

School...for most it's a dreaded word and sometimes for me it is too. I just love learning though so a lot of the time it is happy word for me, especially when I graduate in approximately 116 days. The journey in school has been a long one and for awhile one that I thought I wouldn't continue. I started off with this goal of going to Arizona State University. It was the only school I applied to in high school. That is how much I wanted to go to that school. School is expensive...especially if you are an out of state student. When money got tight, I found myself heading back to Illinois. It was hard. I felt defeated but at least I tried, right? I lost a close friend while I was home during that time and at first things just didn't work for me. I didn't handle it well. I didn't understand why this person was taken away. I had a conversation with my friend's mother. This conversation changed my life. The mother had told me how much her daughter looked up to me and admired me. I had inspired my friend to want more from life, to have goals and pursue those goals. I didn't realize I had that much of an impact on her. Something switched in my head and I felt like I had a purpose: inspiring and helping others. I was getting ready to embark on a new adventure. While I was home I started to think about what I could do for others, and in particular, kids. I became a Big Sister! I knew I could be a positive and encouraging person in my Little's life. I had the best time with my Little. She is a very sweet and funny girl and I hope she realizes the potential she has! During my time with my Little, I decided I needed to complete my first goal...graduate from ASU. With the help of my family and friends, I reapplied and got in and will be graduating in May. I am going to have to say that this past year and a half has probably been the best year and a half of my life.

Work...I cannot say enough good things about the Boys and Girls Club and what they offer their members. I have met so many brilliant people, kids and co-workers, alike. They make my job fun and it's something I look forward to every day. My time at the club, though, is coming to an end. It is something that breaks my heart every time I think about it. Saying goodbye is never easy and this time will be no different. I have enjoyed being a part of their lives and I hope that I can still be apart of their lives after I leave. Which leads me into my next spiel...Peace Corps!

So any day now, I could be receiving my invitation to serve in an African community. Having a hard time saying goodbye to the kids motivated me to create a potential project that will allow me to take the Boys and Girls Club with me to my potential community and also bring the new culture to the Boys and Girls Club. I am working with a variety of different people in hopes to making this happen. I have sent rough drafts to a variety of family members, co-workers, as well as my Peace Corps recruiter and Placement Officer. Fingers are crossed, toes are crossed, eyes are crossed...everything is crossed. I have never felt so strongly about something in my life. I KNOW I CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE IN SOME ONE'S LIFE. I have so many ideas and projects that I can bring with me to my prospective community and I can't wait to do it.

"Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Nelson Mandela

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait

"Good things come to those who wait," is on repeat in my head on a daily basis. "Things happen for a reason," is usually following. By now, you all know I lack in patience. I like being prepared and I feel so unprepared for this adventure, emotionally and physically. I feel like if I knew exactly where in Africa I was going, I would be more at ease. I don't know. I am just so anxious and excited for this adventure I just want it to happen already. I am stressed about saying goodbye to all my friends and family too. This has been really hitting me hard lately. I feel like talking about it has been helping though. I keep a lot of things in and then it just piles up and stresses me out and I don't sleep.

I have started to just being more proactive and going with the flow and hoping for the best. I'm LOVING my job with the Boys and Girls Club and have been panicking a bit about leaving the wonderful kids and staff. I came up with an idea...Peace Corps Partners. I want to create a "hub" (website) that will allow me to interact with the kids at the Boys and Girls. I want to be able to show them the stuff that I am doing there and teach them about the cultures I will come in contact with. I want to use webcasts, podcasts, vlogs, blogs, social media, discussion boards, etc to increase their global awareness. I want to implement a pen pal program as well as fundraising events that will benefit the communities I will be working with. I feel like this program serves the missions of both the Peace Corps and the Boys and Girls Club of America. I am getting a lot of support from the Boys and Girls and hope to come up with a plan that I can give my Peace Corps recruiter.

Other than that I am still chugging along. School is going...ok. lol...I am exhausted but the end result is worth it. Short and sweet this time around!

"I Bless the Rains Down in Africa"-Toto

Alright folks! We are making progress! I just received my nomination letter. I have been nominated for Sub-Saharan Africa in the Secondary Education Science Teaching Program and will be leaving June 2013 (tentatively). Whew! Let the research begin!

I have found out that there are approximately 27 countries that have open Peace Corps programs and approximately 80 languages are spoken amongst those countries! Yikes! It's so exhilarating to think this time next year I will overseas on a new adventure. Bring it on and it's on like donkey kong! I am still in that whole ignorant stage but I am totally eager to learn and prepare myself as much as possible. Next step = medical mumbo jumbo (I will spare you the details because the list is long and tedious!).

In other news, things at the Boys & Girls Club are going great. We are getting ready to finish up our summer camp and then head back into after school programs. My Mad Science Thursdays have been going great and the kids get pretty excited to see what I have up my sleeve. We released our first edition of our Ninja News Newsletter. Photos and stories were taken and written by myself and a group of club members. I am so proud of their enthusiasm and hard work. We will be releasing our next edition August 3rd. This edition will wrap up our summer camp program. I plan on continuing the newsletter into the school year.

I have started my theme song playlist and on it so far:

Africa by Toto
Hakuna Matata by Timon, Pumba and Simba
I Like to Move It Move It by King Julian

More is yet to come!

"You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough." Mae West

Here We Go...

Hey folks! I just had a great weekend! My dad, grandparents, aunt, uncle and cousins flew out. My aunt graduated with her doctorate so we went to her graduation and celebrated. We are all so proud of her! It is such a great accomplishment! Go Dr. Haag!!!!

I have to tell you all about this dream I had over the weekend. I will do my best to recount all the I remember. Ok so here it goes...I remember walking out of a plane with my Peace Corps recruiter. We were on an island of some sort. I remember seeing a beach and another island close by. Now this other island is what stood out most. There were mountains but behind these mountains were big skyscrapers. Weird, I know. I remember my recruiter telling me to go get to know the people and just left me on the island. Then I woke up I think because that is about all I remember. At work on Monday I was telling a friend about it and how weird it would be to hear from my recruiter soon. Surprise!!!!!! I was officially nominated on July 2nd. How crazy is that? So now, if any of you psych people want to analyze my dream, by all means, go ahead and get back to me!

Now the fun begins! I have to go through all these medical tests and what not. I am hoping to hear about a tentative placement as well. I will let you know when I find that out.

This is a short one but I hope to update more frequently now that some progress has been made!

"All successful people men and women are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose." Brian Tracy

Sit Tight For Now

You guys will find a reoccurring theme in my postings...PATIENCE. Something, I feel, lack a lot of. It wasn't until recently that I realized I might have a lot more than I think. A couple of days ago, I was eating with my boss, aka Mama #2, and I told her I wished I had more patience. She said, "Jordy, I think you have a lot of patience. Look at what you are accomplishing." Then I thought about it and she was right. I moved out to AZ in 2005 to attend ASU and even though there have been bumps along the way, I am still trying to accomplish that first goal of graduating from ASU. I have been patient enough to make it this far and not give up. Granted I had some "weak" moments, but here I am doing my thing. I quote weak because to some they may have seemed weak, but to me, they have been great moments that I don't regret. I have established a lot of great relationships in those moments and have been able to work on myself as well.

So when my recruiter says, "Sit tight for now," I am trusting that things will happen when they need to. I emailed him a couple of weeks ago to ask what I could do this summer while waiting to better prepare myself. "Sit tight for now," wasn't really the response I was hoping for. So, I have taken the liberty to start the preparation process myself. The mentality I have right now is that it is going to happen, it's just a matter of where I am going. It may sound conceited, but when you get that feeling that it is just meant to be, you go with it. I started reading journal entries from volunteers all over the world, since I don't know where I am going. I am reading their opinions on what to pack. How do you pack for 2 years in a foreign country? Hmmmm...I will get back to you on that one.

In other news...Boys and Girls Club is amazing! I love being apart of this great organization! The kids are great and my co-workers rock! This week I am starting Mad Science Thursdays. I will do different experiments and activities with the kids. This week we are talking about weather. I also started a newspaper with a co-worker. Kids are really responding to it. I made press badges for them and all. I am hoping to get our first paper out tomorrow, but we will see. My other job at the Az Bread Co is going well too. Co-workers are great. Customers are great. Food is great. It is all just GREAT!

"Compassion is sometimes the fatal capacity for feeling what it is like to live inside somebody else's skin. It is the knowledge that there can never really be any peace and joy for me until there is peace and joy for you too." Frederick Buechner

Summer O' Fun

Ok so a little update on my shenanigans lately...Working at the Boys and Girls Club these past few weeks has been amazing! I love the kids and the other staff. The kids just finished up the semester so next week starts our summer camp program. Let me just say...it is going to be a great summer. I will be running a few different programs...Torch Club (leadership, life skills, community service program for 11-13 year olds), a reading program for all ages through Maricopa County, and the Live. Laugh. Love. Dream. Inspire Room (discovery zone). I am super excited about the summer. A little overwhelmed with all the program planning but it is a great experience and I have amazing resources.

Peace Corps update...waiting on some paperwork to turn in to my recruiter...financial obligation blah blah blah stuff. I am really hoping to get a nomination (and tentative placement) by end of the summer. In my short time with the Boys and Girls Club, I have become really passionate about bringing what they do to a  community that needs it. Along with all my program planning for the summer camp, I am also trying to come up with a program that I can use for my Peace Corps service.

Do you every have those moments where you are like, "It is just meant to be." You can't explain it, but you just know the universe is on your side. I have been feeling like that a lot lately. Things are just falling into place and I have this sense of peace, I guess you can call it. I know I can do anything and be anything and I am not limiting myself. I hope I can convey this attitude throughout the rest of my life. It is so empowering to think about. The possibilities are endless!

By the way my 25th was a couple weeks ago and I crossed two things off the ol' bucket list, try escargot...check and try oysters...check. Holla!

When It Rains It Pours

Have you ever had those days or times in your life where everything and anything goes wrong? I feel like a lot of people dwell on those kinds of things a lot. Instead of reacting negatively, which I am guilty of doing as well, we should find something, a spark of some sort, that puts the light back in and brightens your day. You have the choice to react to any given situation, so react positively no matter how distressing the situation is. Who likes to be in a bad mood and depressed? No one! I started thinking about this more recently after I had a not so good day and called home to my mommy (lol). This one day just was very blah for me. I got hit by a cyclist, I was stressing out over school, I was tired, etc. etc. etc. After getting off the phone I realized that I chose to react negatively rather than positively. Soooo a goal I have added to my life list is to react positively 100% (or close to it) of the time. I like being in a good mood and positive and I like that that can rub off on others and make their day better as well. It is also really cool to have days like those and then have times where everything seems to go right. Within the past week and a half-two weeks, I passed all my finals, got a job working at the Boys and Girls Club and finally got my interview with the Peace Corps. 

The last couple of weeks have been busy for me. I finished up the semester (another one bites the dust), I have been working and anxiously awaiting the call from the Peace Corps. Guess what? They called, or rather emailed me, and I had my interview with a recruiter on May 2nd. When I got the email I was so excited. Then I started to think about it and I started getting really nervous and then had the stress of 4 finals = Jordan gone crazy! My head was on constant overdrive. I was thinking about renal physiology and cancer genetics and optics and cell signaling and…what the heck was I going to say during my Peace Corps interview. Everyone told me to not worry about the interview and focus on finals. Easier said than done. The Peace Corps will be a life changing event for me and I didn't want to go into the interview not prepared. I made a list of questions I wanted answered and ideas I had about projects I wanted to be involved with or start. This helped a lot. It help me be a little more organized. My recruiter by the way was phenomenal. His name is Lassana and he served in Tonga, an island in the south Pacific. He was a great help and inspired me even more about becoming a volunteer. 

Have you ever had to get your fingerprints done? I know they have machines that do them, but I went old school and had to do it with the ink and paper. It was one of the hardest things I have ever had to do. Las and I had some good laughs. My fingers did not want to cooperate. It was actually my pesky ring fingers that didn't want to cooperate. So after the interview ended, I felt like a major weight was lifted off my shoulders. It was a perfect way to end my crazy week. I called my parents right after to let them know how it went and called my grandma too. One of the things I miss the most about back home is my grandma. I miss talking to her and hanging out at her house. She is the sweetest person I know. 

So next step…I will get nominated and then tentatively placed somewhere. Las told me that placements usually open up about a year before you will leave. My plan is to leave in June 2013. I am hoping to hear from him in July or August letting me know I have been nominated. Once that happens then I have to go through a bunch of medical tests and what not. Once I pass all those and have no issues, I wait and I wait and I wait. I will get a detailed invitation about 2 months before I would leave if everything goes well. Patience is not my strong suit, as you can tell. 

Thank you all for all the support and kind words!!!!