Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful,
committed people can change the world.
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
~Margaret Mead
Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.
~Margaret Mead
That was the quote I chose to represent why I became an AmeriCorps volunteer on that freezing cold Martin Luther King, Jr. Service Day trip to the Columbia Gorge Discovery Center. Little did I know how much we would change the world, and how much we ourselves would change in these short ten months.
We converged on a snow-buried Mt. Adams Center in January for snow shoeing and hiking, star gazing and caving. But after we departed to our service sites… me to the desolate and foggy southern Oregon coast… the stories and adventures continued in full force.
My accomplishments at work and new skills acquired will certainly go with me, but it is the other less tangible, more spiritual experiences that I have had here in the magical Pacific Northwest, that have really changed my life forever. In ten months I have snow shoed, skied, and caved in the Cascades, swam in the Umpqua River, rafted the Rogue River, explored Crater Lake, Oregon Caves, the California Redwoods, and dozens of state parks, climbed Mt. Adams (well, most of it), adventured in Seattle, Portland, and Victoria, seen marine creatures great and small, from gray whales to sea splurge, hiked to the top of Multnomah Falls and Beacon Rock in the Columbia Gorge, made friendships that are guaranteed to survive distance and time, volunteered with Habitat for Humanity, Court Appointed Special Advocates, South Coast Food Share, and Star of Hope, started a recycling program at the local county fair, and so much more.
I would like to think Oregon will remember me as long as I will remember her, but that’s not likely. Like the iconic bumper sticker on my water bottle; Oregon will always have a special place in my heart.
Now I am off on a cross-country adventure that should bring me home for Thanksgiving. I will be travelling through Oregon-Idaho-Utah-Colorado-Kansas-Missouri-Illinois-Indiana-Ohio-West Virginia-and-Pennsylvania. I've never been to several of those states and think I should eat pancakes at least once.
See you on the other side of the country!
Atlantic Ocean, Marley is coming home!
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