So Much for a Year Off...

Y'all were right - every one of you who said I wouldn't be able to "just do nothing" for an entire year were absolutely, 100% right! I had my two months or so of extreme cleaning and organization, perfectly planned meals, and every-other-day visits to the library...and then, the opportunities just started rolling in.

It is extremely difficult to even know where to begin this explanation because so much of my life right now is an overlapping web. And since I can't let my teacher technology tools go to waste, (prepare yourself - yes, I am a dork...) I created a graphic organizer on Inspiration to help my cause. (Plus, there are no photos for this post - and I know how much y'all like pictures).

I guess we could begin with the Brunch and Beginnings event I went to at First Presbyterian Church a few Saturdays back. Its purpose was to inform the women of the church about all of the different programs and opportunities they had coming up in the fall. Having a great desire to get plugged into something at the church, I thought this would be a perfect start to see my options. From the moment I walked in, people were extremely friendly and introducing me to others that they learned I had something in common with (in our brief introduction/2-minute autobiography type of conversations we were having). I ended up sitting with this girl, Carla, who teaches running classes at the Y and whose husband is an orthopedic resident here. How's that for similarities?

During the conversation at our table, I explained how I was a 5th grade teacher but currently taking the year off, just doing some volunteer/part-time stuff. Enter Jami: the children's ministry associate who explained that she was looking to hire someone for 12 hours a week to do the 4/5th grade Sunday School and Wed night preschool program along with some technology-related public relations stuff. And the Sunday School class is totally 21st century, using the website http://www.mygrapple.com/ Seriously??? God cracks me up sometimes - could the position be any more perfect for me? (OK - the preschool part doesn't seem entirely perfect for me, but when you consider that whole Dawn-needs-to-get-over-being-scared-of-being-pregnant thing I've got going on, I'm thinking that maybe cute little three year olds will help do the trick.)

I should mention now that prior to this, I had already signed up through the church to volunteer at El Buen Pastor, a Latino Community nonprofit that provides after school tutoring for elementary school kids. The plan was to go on Mondays and Thursdays. Also at this brunch though, I learned that there was another girl from 1st Pres doing the Ramblin Rose training group sponsored by Fleet Feet, but by the end of the day, I couldn't remember her name. After the triathlon, which as I mentioned in an earlier post benefited the Forsyth County Girls on the Run program, Emily sent out an email giving us the contact info for the people in charge of the program here (one of which was Jenny from our training group).

In a series of exchanged emails with her:

• I told her that I loved, loved, loved the concept of the program, but that I didn't think I would have time to be involved this fall because I was tutoring after school - maybe I could be a running buddy or a coach in the spring.


• I learned she was the one who the pastor had told me about that was in the training program that went to 1st Pres.


• She told me that she was coaching a new group at El Buen on Tues./Thrs. from 5-6! WHAT?? Seriously???


• I checked with El Buen about switching my tutoring days from M/Th to Tu/Th (and they said that was better because they have a lot of tutors on Mondays anyway for some reason)...
  

And now, I can do both tutoring and Girls on the Run! Talk about God orchestrating something amazing! GOTR is 10-week program where we talk about physical, emotional, spiritual, and mental health all while helping the girls train for a 5K race, which will be the Mistletoe 5K here in WS on Dec. 6. (If you're interested, Molly Barker, the founder of GOTR has also written a book called Girls on Track that explains the program adapted for a mother (or other adult)/daughter experience. Even if you don't have an 8-12 year old daughter, the first part is still a great read about "getting out of the Girl Box" - the place where many girls go shortly after 5/6th grade when they lose their sense of self and try to be what they think the world expects them to be.)

But there's more... Also in the Ramblin' Rose training group was Kathylyn. I met Kathylyn early on - a mother of two boys, one of whom has Down's syndrome. I had explained that I was a teacher by trade but was taking the year off, so she began inquiring about my experience with special needs kids because she was looking for a tutor for her son. That conversation then turned to her profession as a hippotherapist. A what kind of therapist you ask? A hippotherapist (and it doesn't have anything to do with a hippopotamus). She is a physical therapist who provides therapy to children with severe special needs while riding horses. (She doesn't; the kids do). Her place of employment, Riverwood Therapeutic Riding Center, was always looking for volunteers if I was interested....and, while I am not tutoring her son, I am now volunteering on Fridays from 9-12 at the horse stables. Before class, we groom the horses and saddle them up. During the session, we lead the horses around the arena/along the trail while the kids give commands or we walk along side the student for physical support. My little guy today needed two side walkers and even had two wrap around cushions (basically Boppies for you newer mothers). He was nonverbal with severe cerebral palsy, but the smile that lit up his face as he rode the horse was unmistakable! It would have melted any heart!

Total side note: I would say that I am a pretty low maintenance kind of person, in general. I don't like to spend a whole lot of time dealing with hair, makeup, and things of this nature. But today was our first day of class with kids, so I put on a little bit of makeup and topped it off with a quick coat of lip gloss, what with wanting to make a good impression and all. Can I just tell you that horses shed tremendously about this time of year and brushing them makes all sorts of little hairs, dead skin cells, and straw particles from the stall fly about around your face? And, as you can imagine, they tend to gravitate towards sticky substances...such as lip gloss. About 30 seconds into my brushing escapade today, I realized my error and quickly had to wipe any remaining gloss onto the inside of my shirt. You would think that growing up on a farm, I would have known better, but in rethinking that connection, I realized there were a couple of differences when it comes to my experience with pigs:


1. We didn't dry brush them - they got washed (with Suave coconut shampoo and conditioner if I recall...)
2. They didn't have straw in their pens - they had shredded paper. (It was handy that one of our closest family friends works at the bank in town, so we had plenty of shredded documents to use as the lining for the pens - See, reusing, even back then!) There's nothing quite like pitching pig poo with shreds of bank statements....Ahhh, the memories.

OK - shredded paper - brings me back to the present now. My second paying job: Data Processor at The Rush Fitness Complex - Downtown Winston-Salem. Lately, I've been getting my daily tasks there finished early (because right now, we are in a temporary facility until the real club opens on September 26th so it's not all that busy) so I spend the rest of the time SHREDDING PAPERS! The facility is literally, right across the street from our building. I interviewed with the Operations Manager who was hiring for front desk, juice bar, and Kid Kare positions, but when she offered me a job, she told me about this Data Processor role. It sounded like what I did in the Admission Office at Knox - take names from applications and enter data into a computer. Perfect! Once I started, I realized it was a whole lot more than that. I do the commission sheets, cash register reports, and not only do I input the new member data, but I have to set up their monthly accounts. Basically everything I do deals with someone's money - which makes me slightly nervous. But it's a fun working environment - plus Chris and I have a really nice place to work out for free.

I mentioned in the previous post how Aaron, who works at The Rush is also one of the women's volleyball coaches, and we just hired a new girl who works for the Wake Athletic Department - so I see her all of the time too! Crazy little connections keep sneaking up...

Do you see how confusing this all is??? (I know the graphic organizer isn't very clear, but it was the best I could do for a website page). I can't even tell you how many times I've thanked God for the seamless ways this has all fallen together. It completely blows my mind! But I guess that's what happens when you believe He can do all things!