Wonderemployment

This Saturday I celebrated my one year anniversary of being a mentor with YMCA's Reach & Rise program. I am so glad that I took the leap to sign up as a mentor. Seeing how my mentee has grown in just the course of this year has truly been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I don't want to say too much about her because I want to protect her privacy and her feelings should she read this someday, but she's 14, loves punk rock, drawing, and spending time with friends. G has had a lot of challenges placed in front of her, especially for a young person, but despite it all she has so much energy and passion. We've done a lot of things together, things that I take for granted but for her are new and exciting, like going out for sushi, doing yoga, bringing cameras out to a garden and appreciating nature through photography. She takes on every new experience with eagerness and an open mind. When I first found out I was going to be matched with a te...

I got to attend a fun conference in Berkeley today, called Teens Tackle Tobacco . It brings together high school students interested in being leaders and health educators and gives them resources about tobacco, drugs, alcohol, and other health issues. This is not like a DARE program. It offers facts, not fear-based messages, and doesn't present the issues as black and white. The adults there treat the teens like rational human beings capable of making reasoned decisions. And in turn, the teens show so much maturity and dedication to learning. It's a beautiful sight to see! I attended this event as a co-presenter on youth gambling. It's always fun to work with teens, but my favorite part was attending the other workshops. The first session I went to was from the folks at Niroga Institute. They bring mindfulness, breathing techniques, and yoga (collectively referred to as Transformative Life Skills) to schools and help students become peer leaders. They talked a lot about ...

Yay, I finally gave blood today! It's such an easy way to save lives and I'm glad I'm healthy and able to do it. To donate or find out more info, check out Blood Centers of the Pacific . They currently have a promo where if you refer a friend to donate, you get two free movie tickets! If you're interested in being my Blood Buddy, just print out this card , fill in my contact info, and I'll take you on a date ;)

I miss the Valentine's Days of elementary school, when I got to decorate a little mailbox and write cards to all my classmates. I put a lot of time into my cards, putting extra care into the cards for my BFFs and crushes of course! It's hard to find time these days to do nice things like that, but I found a good reason to this year. Meals on Wheels has a "Love Letters" campaign this year asking youth to make Valentines for seniors. Many older adults suffer from isolation and depression, so this is a small way to show them that someone in their community is thinking of them. Here is a PSA explaining the project (I'm too old to know who this celeb is): I wanted to get my mentee Gabbie involved in this project with me, so I gathered some construction paper, markers, and cute printables ( gems and conversation hearts ) to get our creativity going. Her friend joined us too, and I was happy that they really got into it. We made 19 cards total, and I sent th...

This first week of working part time felt more stressful than my normal full time schedule. First, I ended up working four days, which considering all the holidays we've had, isn't much different. Disappointingly, I failed on my first attempt to do something good with my time off. I was scheduled to give blood on Tuesday, but ended up throwing up the night before and feeling incredibly weak by morning. I kid you not, the last FOUR times I've signed up to give blood, I've gotten sick and been unable to do it. I'm not sure what kind of sign that is. But I will persevere and try again next week! I had an interview on Thursday. Normally that would be good news, but since it already passed, I can confidently say it did not go very well. For one, I'm blatantly under-qualified for the position (according to their stated minimum qualifications, not my own assessment) and it was hard to skirt that issue. But worse than that, I was SO damn nervous and it showed. I usual...