On the Road to Sacramento; Reflections

In time the snow will rise, in time the snow will rise- Sufjan Stevens

Driving back from Salt Lake City was like passing between two worlds. In the morning before we left on our first day of road tripping, we met up with Silver 3, another Fuel Reduction team like us, who had been stationed in Wyoming working with Habitat for humanity. We all drove, caravan style, from Salt Lake City to Reno, about 11 hours on the road. It was so strange being back with all my old friends, who during the month of CTI (training) I had become so close with, especially Cody, my old suitemate on campus, and seeing them again seemed so strange but also so comforting.

We had been living in a world where the only people that existed, were the ten members on our team, who I had grown to love and appreciate so well. The only activities that existed were the ones that we could access from our cabin; hikes, snowball fights, and of course our 9-10 hours that we spent working at the Utah Food bank daily. It was like our first project had been a perfect little experiment tucked neatly inside a snow globe, complete with an absurd amount of snowfall and filled with little people that continuously did the exactly same thing every day and smiled the entire time, no matter how good or bad their day was going.

As the landscape around us passed from daunting rock-faced mountains to the hours of painfully deserted salt flats and then into the cozy foot-hills, I sat in the other team’s van and quickly found out that not all team’s experiences were as neatly folded as ours had been. While winding through the miles of snow covered mountains, touched only by the pine trees and railroad tracks, I heard stories of negative fourteen degree days, wearing coats a mittens to bed, using outhouses nearly flooded with frozen refuse and team members at each others throat constantly.

It was easy to think at a first that my team would never get to the point of fighting but I guess when you are sleeping on canvas cots in an unfinished basement versus sleeping snugged up in a fire-heated cabin in the mountains, then things are different. I am still as enthusiastic about Amercorps as I have always been, but I have no Idea what we will be waiting for us on the other end of January.

For now I am just so excited to go home for the Holidays, to see my family, and dogs and my friends. The more time I spend away from home; backpacking and road tripping this summer to all my travel in Americorps, the more I appreciate and love my roots. Massachusetts has got some solid people.