One Day, I'll Fly Away
After the events of my last post, I felt compelled to tell the story. Then, I remembered livejournal. I have always enjoyed writing as a way to release my thoughts. I have also enjoyed reading my older posts, some more than others. Good times, bad times. Some things have changed. Some things stay the same.
It always seems like too long between posts.
I graduated from Salisbury University in May of 2013 with a B.S. in Biology. I spent six months as a lab assistant to two professors who were researching sorghum as a potential biofuel. I mostly normalized and analyzed data. I also set up and cleaned up class labs. I have worked part time for almost 5 years at Asbury United Methodist Church in the children’s nursery on Sundays and as needed. I enjoy the job, and it helped me pay for school. I am very grateful to my parents. They also helped me pay for school. After graduating, I decided to stay in the Salisbury area. I worked part time at the Salisbury Zoo in the Education Department for a year after I graduated. I got a full time job at a daycare, but was then offered a full-time AmeriCorps position at the Salisbury Zoo. So, I took it.
I recently signed on for my second year with ShoreCorps/PALS, an AmeriCorps (AMC) State and National group based out of Salisbury University. AMC is a national service program which addresses critical community needs in education, public safety, health, and the environment. Members of AMC sign a year contract. They can serve quarter time, half time, or full-time, and receive a living stipend. At the end of the year, if the necessary hours are met, members receive an education award. This award is good for future educational endeavors or to pay off federal loans. They also defer the loan payments and interest for the year.
Our group has members in places like the Ward Museum, Phillip’s Warf Environmental Center, the Health Department, MAC Inc. (Maintaining Active Citizens, a resource for seniors), the local libraries, and various afterschool programs. This will be my second, and final, year serving at the Salisbury Zoo in the Education Department. Members may not earn more than two full-time education awards. I feel very happy with what I am doing with AMC and the Salisbury Zoo. I have grown so much and learned a lot. I also feel like I have made a lasting impact, even if it is small, in my community. I have been pushed out of my comfort zone and challenged at every turn. I’ve have had glorious days, laughed so hard, and smiled so much! I never have a bad day… only hectic ones. At the zoo, I wear a lot of hats.
At the Salisbury Zoo, there is a collection of animals that not everyone knows about. According to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), the body that accredits us, in order to have education animals, they have to be housed separately from the general collection. I assist with caring for these animals. Our collection is mostly made up of injured, unreleasable birds of prey and unwanted pets: snakes, turtles, and frogs. We do programs at the zoo or take these animals to schools, senior homes, festivals, etc. to teach people about them and their natural environment. We focus on adaptations and their conservation status, and we stress the importance of environmental stewardship.
I wish it were that cut and dry. We have so many different types of programs. Being a non-profit, we have limited staff. Being a non-profit, we also do a good bit of fundraising, grant writing, and sponsorship searching. Although the zoo is run by the City of Salisbury, the Education Department is not directly funded by them. We have massive holiday events at Halloween and Christmas to bring the community together for fun activities and boost the funds. We hold other community events throughout the year, including Go Wild with Art, Wild About Reading, Earth Day Celebration, BACIL Night (for special needs children and families), Zoobilation (for foodies and the Local Owner Restaurant Association), LEAF (Local Ecology: Animals and Forests), etc.
To assist us in all of this, we have a massive amount of volunteers. I am the volunteer liaison. We have service learning volunteers, who mostly help at holiday events and with zoo beautification projects. We have interns, who come in for intense training for a few months and then usually leave. Interns assist with caring for the education animals and facilitating education programs. We also have docents, who are committed, trained volunteers. They assist with programs, but will also act independently within the zoo, offering information and educational activities. Docents serve 50 hours per year to remain active and can be trained to handle and care for the education animals after 100 total hours.
I am in charge of writing lessons and creating activities for a presentation I facilitate for the MAST (Math, Arts, Science, and Technology) program. The MAST program schedules different partners who travel to local schools. Partners provide an enriching, educational experience. The goal of the program is to increase math and science testing scores, as well as increase student interest in science and the arts. This is one of my favorite parts of my AMC service. We have so much fun with these kids!
I aspire to be a good role model for students, especially girls, interested in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) fields. I try to make my lessons fun and informative, while including something for every learning style. I am deeply driven by the desire for children to believe in themselves. Without getting too deep: I grew up in a broken home. I finally graduated from SU when I was 26, and I would still like to pursue a Master’s degree or possibly another Bachelor’s. It took me a long time to get to where I am, and I am thankful for everything along the way. However, I still don’t have all the outside emotional support I desire. But, I believe in me and I’m proud of me. Most days. Although, I’m not always very good at showing it. I’m not done yet; onward and upward!
I still work at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. This is my 13th season overall, and my 9th season with Larry at Fantasy Guilde Studios and Gothic Games. I am still a Drench-a-Wench, and still loving every minute of it! For the past few seasons, I have only been able to work for about five out of the nine of the weekends. It is hard to make the commute from Salisbury while maintaining a full-time AMC position at the zoo and working part-time at Asbury in the nursery. Drench-a-Wench for life, though! I love my Rennfest family!
I currently live in Quantico, Maryland with Jeremy and our two cats. Jeremy and I have been dating for about 5 years now. We’ve had our ups and downs. We were living in an apartment in Salisbury, but we got evicted due to a communication error. I had been paying my half of the bills. Since he hadn’t told me otherwise, I thought he had been dropping the rent at the front office. But, I love our house in Quantico, in the middle of nowhere. I love our cats: Amber and Cali. I love Jeremy. He is very understanding and he tries hard. He makes me laugh and we go on adventures. He puts up with my flaws, and I put up with his. He is very handy and we like cooking together. We have problems, of course. But, I love him.
Since my last post, Dave and I broke up, and I still do not talk to him. Although, I have seen him around… mostly at Rennfest. He was such an asshole. I can’t even. Literally. Dru and I do not talk, either. I have also seen him around… mostly at Rennfest and Shooters. That breakup didn’t exactly go down the way I previously posted. But, I’m not going there either. He is an asshole, and refused to return a lot of my things. All I could do was be numb and call it grace. I hadn’t even realized the trauma. Maybe because I have always lived it. Now, this is released.
Always learning. Always growing.
It always seems like too long between posts.
I graduated from Salisbury University in May of 2013 with a B.S. in Biology. I spent six months as a lab assistant to two professors who were researching sorghum as a potential biofuel. I mostly normalized and analyzed data. I also set up and cleaned up class labs. I have worked part time for almost 5 years at Asbury United Methodist Church in the children’s nursery on Sundays and as needed. I enjoy the job, and it helped me pay for school. I am very grateful to my parents. They also helped me pay for school. After graduating, I decided to stay in the Salisbury area. I worked part time at the Salisbury Zoo in the Education Department for a year after I graduated. I got a full time job at a daycare, but was then offered a full-time AmeriCorps position at the Salisbury Zoo. So, I took it.
I recently signed on for my second year with ShoreCorps/PALS, an AmeriCorps (AMC) State and National group based out of Salisbury University. AMC is a national service program which addresses critical community needs in education, public safety, health, and the environment. Members of AMC sign a year contract. They can serve quarter time, half time, or full-time, and receive a living stipend. At the end of the year, if the necessary hours are met, members receive an education award. This award is good for future educational endeavors or to pay off federal loans. They also defer the loan payments and interest for the year.
Our group has members in places like the Ward Museum, Phillip’s Warf Environmental Center, the Health Department, MAC Inc. (Maintaining Active Citizens, a resource for seniors), the local libraries, and various afterschool programs. This will be my second, and final, year serving at the Salisbury Zoo in the Education Department. Members may not earn more than two full-time education awards. I feel very happy with what I am doing with AMC and the Salisbury Zoo. I have grown so much and learned a lot. I also feel like I have made a lasting impact, even if it is small, in my community. I have been pushed out of my comfort zone and challenged at every turn. I’ve have had glorious days, laughed so hard, and smiled so much! I never have a bad day… only hectic ones. At the zoo, I wear a lot of hats.
At the Salisbury Zoo, there is a collection of animals that not everyone knows about. According to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), the body that accredits us, in order to have education animals, they have to be housed separately from the general collection. I assist with caring for these animals. Our collection is mostly made up of injured, unreleasable birds of prey and unwanted pets: snakes, turtles, and frogs. We do programs at the zoo or take these animals to schools, senior homes, festivals, etc. to teach people about them and their natural environment. We focus on adaptations and their conservation status, and we stress the importance of environmental stewardship.
I wish it were that cut and dry. We have so many different types of programs. Being a non-profit, we have limited staff. Being a non-profit, we also do a good bit of fundraising, grant writing, and sponsorship searching. Although the zoo is run by the City of Salisbury, the Education Department is not directly funded by them. We have massive holiday events at Halloween and Christmas to bring the community together for fun activities and boost the funds. We hold other community events throughout the year, including Go Wild with Art, Wild About Reading, Earth Day Celebration, BACIL Night (for special needs children and families), Zoobilation (for foodies and the Local Owner Restaurant Association), LEAF (Local Ecology: Animals and Forests), etc.
To assist us in all of this, we have a massive amount of volunteers. I am the volunteer liaison. We have service learning volunteers, who mostly help at holiday events and with zoo beautification projects. We have interns, who come in for intense training for a few months and then usually leave. Interns assist with caring for the education animals and facilitating education programs. We also have docents, who are committed, trained volunteers. They assist with programs, but will also act independently within the zoo, offering information and educational activities. Docents serve 50 hours per year to remain active and can be trained to handle and care for the education animals after 100 total hours.
I am in charge of writing lessons and creating activities for a presentation I facilitate for the MAST (Math, Arts, Science, and Technology) program. The MAST program schedules different partners who travel to local schools. Partners provide an enriching, educational experience. The goal of the program is to increase math and science testing scores, as well as increase student interest in science and the arts. This is one of my favorite parts of my AMC service. We have so much fun with these kids!
I aspire to be a good role model for students, especially girls, interested in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) fields. I try to make my lessons fun and informative, while including something for every learning style. I am deeply driven by the desire for children to believe in themselves. Without getting too deep: I grew up in a broken home. I finally graduated from SU when I was 26, and I would still like to pursue a Master’s degree or possibly another Bachelor’s. It took me a long time to get to where I am, and I am thankful for everything along the way. However, I still don’t have all the outside emotional support I desire. But, I believe in me and I’m proud of me. Most days. Although, I’m not always very good at showing it. I’m not done yet; onward and upward!
I still work at the Maryland Renaissance Festival. This is my 13th season overall, and my 9th season with Larry at Fantasy Guilde Studios and Gothic Games. I am still a Drench-a-Wench, and still loving every minute of it! For the past few seasons, I have only been able to work for about five out of the nine of the weekends. It is hard to make the commute from Salisbury while maintaining a full-time AMC position at the zoo and working part-time at Asbury in the nursery. Drench-a-Wench for life, though! I love my Rennfest family!
I currently live in Quantico, Maryland with Jeremy and our two cats. Jeremy and I have been dating for about 5 years now. We’ve had our ups and downs. We were living in an apartment in Salisbury, but we got evicted due to a communication error. I had been paying my half of the bills. Since he hadn’t told me otherwise, I thought he had been dropping the rent at the front office. But, I love our house in Quantico, in the middle of nowhere. I love our cats: Amber and Cali. I love Jeremy. He is very understanding and he tries hard. He makes me laugh and we go on adventures. He puts up with my flaws, and I put up with his. He is very handy and we like cooking together. We have problems, of course. But, I love him.
Since my last post, Dave and I broke up, and I still do not talk to him. Although, I have seen him around… mostly at Rennfest. He was such an asshole. I can’t even. Literally. Dru and I do not talk, either. I have also seen him around… mostly at Rennfest and Shooters. That breakup didn’t exactly go down the way I previously posted. But, I’m not going there either. He is an asshole, and refused to return a lot of my things. All I could do was be numb and call it grace. I hadn’t even realized the trauma. Maybe because I have always lived it. Now, this is released.
Always learning. Always growing.