Halfway Questions and Answers

With the recent craziness here at Starfish HQ, I completely blew past my six month VISTA mark.

A week ago today, I crossed into the second six months of my year of service, meaning I'm halfway done.

They say time flies when you are having fun. I guess they (whoever "they" are) are right.

The first six months has been a lot of things. I can't say "fun" would have been the first word to pop to mind. I think I would have picked things like "educational," "eye-opening" and a "good experience." If you asked me this question face-to-face and we continued talking, I probably would have also listed words like "stressful" and "frustrating" at times.

The key question I can answer at this point is, "If you could rewind time, would you choose to do AmeriCorps*VISTA again?"

I can definitively would say yes. For all the things this experience has been so far (including getting to try out the wonderful health benefit this week...), I would make the same choice. It's been a lot of sacrifice, leaving a "real" paycheck and good friends in another state, but on the other hand, I've gained a lot too. A lot of hands-on experience, the chance to see my work is making a difference and I've met new friends here in Indiana, both VISTAs (a shout out here to my PSO crew and others who I've gotten to know) and non-VISTAs who are wonderfully understanding about why I can't do social things that involving the spending of much money.

So while maybe I wouldn't have picked "fun" at first, it would be an oversight to leave it off the list.

Here's hoping the second half is as good as the first.