Final Reflections

Signing up for Wartburg West, I really was not sure what I was getting myself into.  I knew that I wanted an off campus experience and I knew I wanted to do an internship in order to learn about what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. I was looking for something different than taking classes on campus.  I always knew coming into Wartburg that I wanted to travel and this seemed like an awesome opportunity.  I knew I could have all of my required classes done before I came, so it seemed like an awesome way to finish out my college career.  I felt as if it would be a learning experience.  All of my friends graduated at the end of my junior year and I was not sure how my senior year would go, but I knew that no matter what, I could look forward to Denver.  I knew that when times got rough, and I wanted to quit, I could just focus on coming to Denver.  I knew that Denver would be something to challenge me in new ways and provide me with opportunities and memories to last a life time.  I used that to fuel me through fall semester.  Through the time in Denver, I have just thought of all the amazing things here and used that to remind me how privileged and lucky I am to be here. Now, preparing to leave, I can look back and always remember Denver.

When I was thinking about coming to Denver and getting ready to depart, I was worried that I would not be good at my internship.  I was worried that I would not be helpful to my internship site and would be more of a hindrance than a help.  Yet, I was looking forward to learning about the organization and having new experiences.  I was looking forward to getting some hands on experiences and learning more about the marketing field and what all comprised it. I was also scared about living at a higher, dryer altitude.  I was worried about the sickness that would come with it.  Yet, I learned quickly to adjust.  It meant drinking a lot more water and learning to rest and not always be going 100%.  This is an adjustment that I will need to make in life though as well.  Taking time to slow down and enjoy life is something I have not really done much.  Yet, being in Denver has taught me to slow down and smell the coffee so to speak; to take time to see the small things and appreciate the little known things.

Living in Iowa my whole life, we become so accustomed to the “simple” Iowa life.  We take note of the small things.  The sunsets.  The sunrises.  The quietness. The stars.  All things that I have yet to really experience in Denver.  When in a city, everyone is in a hurry and busy.  They have an agenda that they have to keep. It was strange getting used to this go-go-go lifestyle.  The coffee and sugar in the morning.  The working lunches. Being a commuter.  Yet, above everything else, it made me appreciate the Iowa life.  The slow pace and the being able to walk anywhere and everywhere. 

Coming out to Denver, I had this pre-conceived notion that the city would not be safe.  As much as my experiences have proven that true, they have proven that false.  Being safe in the city is all about learning to protect oneself and not go looking for trouble.  Obviously, being at one of the Boys & Girls Clubs at Night is a bad idea because of the neighborhoods their located in.  Yet, I was there at night and felt safe because I knew I would not be walking through the neighborhood and knew that I could drive a few blocks and be in a safer part of town

I made a “bucket list” of things to do in Denver upon coming out here.  Looking back on everything, I have accomplished the majority of things on my list.  The list consisted of eating a certain places, visiting places, seeing things, touring things.  And all but about two of them are done.  All my experiences that I have wanted to have, I have pretty much had.  It has been a journey of a life time doing things that I never would have done else wise. 

Coming out to Denver, I really hoped to figure out if I wanted to work in marketing or look into another area of business.  I was hoping that having an internship in Marketing would help me figure out what I really wanted to do with my life.  Do I want to stay in a big city?  Do I want to live in the Midwest?  These have been questions for reflection for me throughout my stay in Denver, yet, I am not sure I have come to any conclusions.  I am not sure any of these questions have been answered.  I am not sure if that is good, or bad.  I am not sure if I am okay with not having these answers.  Yet, I know that with time, answers will come.  With time, I will find something I love to do with my life.  My internship has provided something for me to look forward to day in and day out and to make connections to through my other experiences in Denver.  Denver has taught me that it is okay to not have answers about life.  It is okay to not know exactly what is going on.  What is not okay though, is not asking questions to get there.  I have learned that I need to ask questions to get to where I want to be. 

Living in the Wartburg West apartments is a community life unlike anything I have ever experienced before.  I was really hoping to become closer to all of the students and spend time exploring with them.  Yet, I cannot say that happened.  I become friends with a couple other people, but really, the community life in the apartments this semester was lacking.  There was clearly a divide between people.  The people who just wanted to drink and party, and the people who wanted to explore.  Everyone originally said they wanted to be included, yet those people who were so add emit, were the ones excluding others.  At first, it was annoying, yet learning to do things on my own and go off and do what I wanted to do was what got me out and about.  I learned that I could not wait to be invited places, and I could not always expect people to come with me places.  If I wanted to do something or go somewhere, I just had to go and do it and no wait for others because no one would come.  This hurt as I was hoping for a better community from this semester.  Yet, it prepared me for life after college.  A life when I may not have a roommate and will need to get out on my own and explore or make new friends.  I experienced searching for a church on my own and making that a church home.  I learned that I can really rely on the church I eventually choose to make friends and find a good, stable community.

Denver has provided me an opportunity to start thinking about life after Graduation, and life's return to Iowa.  Starting the long process of applying for jobs, thinking about where I want to move to, what kind of job I want, how life will be, how to keep in touch with people, etc.  Thinking about everything I have to do before I come back to Iowa and when I get back to Iowa.  It is so strange to think that in less than 2 months I will be an alumni of Wartburg College. It seems like just last week I was graduating high school and now the baby of the family is graduating college.  Crazy.  What will life bring?  What is next?  Where is next?  Only God knows.  But slowly and surely, he will reveal his plans to the rest of us.  Until then, it is time to sit back and enjoy the journey.

I have learned so much in this three month experience here outside of my internship.  I have learned to take life one day at a time and slow down, appreciate life.  And that is one big thing that I want to take out of this going forward. I learned that you can not live life in a box.  You have to get out of your comfort zone, experience new things.  Meet new people, learn new things.  You have to use the hard times in life to be able to fully appreciate the good times.  You have to use those job rejection letters to fuel you going forward.  Yet you have to be so happy that you are able to apply for jobs and that I was raised and brought up to keep trying.  I know that God has a plan and we just need to let his plan take shape.  I have so many excuses.  I have so many fears.  I say, “God, I can’t do it.  I’m too weak, I’m too pathetic.  It’s impossible.”  But God looks back at me and says, “But beloved, since when did it become all about you?  It’s about me.  It’s my promise.  I will guide you.  I’ll never leave you.”

And that is what I have learned.  “A person’s biggest challenge isn’t someone else.  It’s the ache in your lungs and the burning in your legs, and the voice inside you that yells, I CANT.”  But you don’t listen.  You just push harder.  And then you hear the voice whisper, “I can.”  And then you discover that person you thought you were is really no match for who you really are.”

I have learned that were here learn that there are no random acts.  That we are all connected.  That you can no more separate one life from another then you can separate a breeze from the wind.

From my internship, I have learned even more.  I have learned about the type of work environment I want.  I have learned the amount of pressure that I need to be put under.  I have learned that I need a busy work schedule, and not so busy life schedule.  This experience has given me so much insight into life that I can use to fuel me forward.  I only have a few weeks of classes left at Wartburg and then I will need to start a new journey as one ends.  Using what I have learned in Denver can fuel me forward into the new experiences of life after college.  Coming out to Denver has really prepared me for life after college.  It has taught me to budget, to live on my own, and to survive and thrive in a big city. 

When talking to others about the experience, I would tell them it is one of the best things that has happened to me.  I would tell students and professors on campus about the amazing experience that it is and how great of an opportunity it is to really be challenged and nurtured for lives of leadership and service as a spirited expression of our faith and learning. Denver really allows students to live their education through experiential learning but also provides them with opportunities and experiences that we would not otherwise get on campus.  Had I not come to Denver, I never would have done an internship for credit which would hold me back even more in my job search.  I would tell everyone that there is so much more to a college experience than just taking classes on campus.  Being able to get out and explore and really experience the world is what college is about, is it not?  The Wartburg West program really allows students to do that in a safe and nurturing environment.

            In the month that I am back on campus, I hope to really talk to my professors in the business department and encourage them to recommend this experience to all students.  I feel it is easy to fit into a schedule with the proper planning and also provides opportunities that the business department cannot give.  They can provide internships, yet there are so many more opportunities in Denver and I truly believe that there is something for everyone.  Everyone can find the perfect fit and find other things to get involved in that will allow for even more growth.  I do not know too many underclassmen, but those few that I do know will not hear anything but good things about the Wartburg West experience and how they all need to sign up.  Wartburg West really allows students of all majors’ great opportunities.  Some students in certain majors believe that they cannot complete an internship because there are not any available.  I believe after my experience here that that is a poor excuse and that there is truly an opportunity for everyone in Denver.

Last Full Week in Denver

Wow.  This marks week 13.  My last full week in Denver.  I did a lot of reflection on Denver last week, so there probably wont be much this week.  Last week was pretty chill.  I wasn’t feeling well Saturday, so I didn’t do much.  On Sunday, I went to church, stopped by Buffalo Doughboy bakery on the way home, and then just hung out in the apartment working on homework for the afternoon.  In the afternoon, all of the interns met up from about 3-9 to work on our debate for religion class. I had never done a debate like this before so that made it hard.  Also, none of the other interns really value my opionon and everything is their way or the highway so it made it hard to really participate when they are all outspoken and no one else can talk.  We made it through that though.  Monday started with class, and then religion where we had our debate.  I didn’t do too well, but I also did not dwell on it.  Monday afternoon I went to the local coffee shop for about 6 hours so I could write my final reflection, do my evaluation, stream TV online, write my religion essay, and other odds and ends.  It was nice to be able to just sit in a coffee shop all day  and get work done again.  I forgot how much I can accomplish there.  On Tuesday, I was back at work and couldn’t have been happier.  I love my internship so much, and am really going to miss that place when I leave.  I worked some more on my project for the Beacons creating summer maps and information sheets with free events and locations of libraries and such.  Very in-depth and time consuming, but I got it done.  Tuesday night, our religion class went to “The Great Debate.”  We all thought it was going to be some boring debate, but it actually ended up being super funny and really entertaining.  The Great debate is a humorous academic debate about the relative merits and meanings  surrounding Latke and Hamantash, two popular items in Jewish Cuisine.  I actually enjoyed it.  A lot.  On Wednesday, I was back at work and continued the Beacons project.  I also helped stuff annual reports for a couple hours.  I scheduled meetings with my supervisors as well for the next day.  Wednesday night, I went to class and presented on my CEP.  I had some really powerful videos, but something happened going from the PC I made it on to the MAC that we were presenting from.  After the three presentations, we spent about an hour filling out exit forms which was super long and boring.  I made cookies for Embree’s birthday on Thursday and then went to bed.  Thursday, I showed up at work and helped decorate for Embree’s birthday.  We filled her office with balloons and left presents and cards.  I worked for a little while on my projects and then met with my supervisors to teach them ALL ABOUT survey monkey.  Lot’s of information and they took lots of notes.  After that, we all met to go over the stuff I had been working on for the Beacons projects.  I had edits to make after that, so I did that and then the day was over.  My last Thursday at work.  It is so incredible how quickly everything has come and gone. 

Last night, I applied for some more jobs and just hung out and watched TV.  I slept in this morning and then went to class at 1030.  We got done, I down town and had a free lunch at Rock Bottom, stopped at the library, bought thank you notes for my supervisors then returned home.  I applied for about 10 more jobs and did some laundry early this afternoon. 

I am now doing some laundry and watching TV.  I am hoping to get laundry done and get it drying so I can pack it up this weekend and begin the long packing and cleaning process.  We shall see how that goes. 

Reflections on Denver

Wow.  Two weeks from today, I will be driving across Nebraska on my way back to Iowa.  How incredibly crazy is that?  This journey here is almost over physically, but experientially, and mentally, it will never be over.  I have learned so much here.

Every week, I get asked the same question, “What are your plans for after graduation?”  Every week, I give the same answer, “I’m not sure.”  Although, that is not completely true.  I have two plans.  I have the ‘follow my heart plan’ and the ‘follow my brain’ plan.  Unfortunately, my heart and brain do not agree in what I will be doing after graduation.  None the less, the Wartburg West Experience has struck both and given both the need to further develop these plans and to really figure out what each plan entails.  Both plans call for me to get a job.  One in a corporation, one in a non profit.  One in Portland, Maine, one in Denver, Colorado.  Both plans do agree though that I would like to do some sort of development/marketing work.  That is what one of the other things I have learned here.  Although I will probably not go into marketing right away, I can see myself doing that.  I have learned that I like the event planning and research side (not together, but two separate careers) of marketing, yet marketing is so broad that I can really see myself anywhere in the marketing field. The experience has really gotten me thinking about what I want to do, where I want to go, what kind of work environment I want, what type of job do I want to do?  All these questions are things that I have begun and continued to think about throughout my internship. 

When the thought of vocation comes to mind I struggle.  So many of the employees that I work with at BGCMD have not been there very long; 5 years at the most and have other jobs before they came here.  I do not see that as being long.  Yet, I think that they are all here for the same reason I am, the passion to help the kids and teenagers who visit BGCMD and the fact that their personal passions and motivations line up with that of the organization.  Being at the support center during this time, is sort of like being at an accounting firm during tax season.  It is so crazy at this time of year, that I never really get to sit down with anyone and talk about things like vocation and passion and their work history.  Some of this has come up in conversation and some is what I have picked up on, but unless I schedule a meeting a week in advance, the chances of seeing my supervisor for more than 5 minutes in one day is rare.  That being said, I can only speculate on where our assumptions and understandings of life agree and match up.  Yet, their assumptions and understandings of me are things I can report on.  My co-workers expect me to complete my work and to grow and to learn.  My supervisor expects me to be part of the team.  Yes, there are times where I take on the busy work, but its things that if I didn’t do it, someone else would. 

Being part of the team means doing things I don’t want to do.  I have hesitated throughout this semester to speak my mind and give my opinion because of being so introverted.  I have always had control and worked with people my own age and not really had a problem giving my thoughts.  Working on newsletters and replying to people who left comments on my survey was a new challenge.  My supervisor has challenged me speak my mind.  There is one conversation that comes to mind when talking about being pushed to grow and speak my mind. 

I was moderating comments on a survey, and came to one about how we run our survey and if third parties are involved and how to verify if a ticket was purchased.  I knew the answer, yet I still asked her opinion.  She emailed me back and asked me what I thought.  I honestly thought she had emailed the wrong person.  Yet, she told me she believed in me and knew I had the response.  When I sent my response to her, she said that was exactly what she would have said.  Although this challenged me to really think about how to keep my answer short and conscience, it also allowed me to see how much I knew about the raffle in order to do this. My answer ended up satisfying the patron and they said it was a very professional answer and they appreciated it.  Had my supervisor not challenged me to write this response, I would have just passed it on with the other comments I pass on.  It gave me the confidence and faith in myself that I can reply to some of the more “challenging” survey comments and do not need to necessarily pass all these “non-standard reply” comments on. 

Coming into this internship, I really was not completely sure what to expect.  I wasn’t sure what I wanted to get out of this internship.  I knew I wanted to try to figure out what I wanted to do after graduation, but beyond that, I wasn’t really sure what my goals were. Looking back at what I wrote I wanted to do and learn about before coming out to Denver, I think I have accomplished it all.  I said that I wanted to be able to appreciate the “simple” Iowa life.  I do.  I appreciate the quiet, the humidity, the simplicity of it all.  I said that I wanted to learn if I wanted to stay in a big city or go to a small town.  I think I want something in between.  Not as big as Denver, not as small as Iowa City, but somewhere in between.  I also lastly said that I wanted to decide where I wanted to concentrate my job search, in the marketing field, or in another field.  Although this isn’t exactly complete, I know I want to look first in the marketing or development areas and then branch out from there.

This week at work was pretty slow, and contained a lot of the same work that I have been doing in the past weeks.  We are gearing up for another early bird drawing next week, and this week is the last week to buy tickets for that.  It was a lot of calling people who had declined credit cards, working on coming up with guerilla marketing techniques, and beginning to say good bye.  With only 5 working days left, I think about everything I have done here.  I think about coming in and not knowing anything about this organization, and look at all I have accomplished.  I have done a lot of market research for them, helped plan drawings, helped film kids, hung out at the Dream House, and worked on minor parts of many other projects.  This week it really hit home that we are almost done here in Denver, and I still have no idea what life holds after graduation.  But I know that I know have all of these internship experiences behind me that I can use and reflect on in order to try to get a job.

I’ve learned that I want to live in a city, but maybe not one as big as Denver.  The city isn’t dangerous like I orginially thought it might.  But all the people always being in a rush gets to me.  I’ve learned to take life one day at a time and slow down, appreciate life.  And that is one big thing that I want to take out of this going forward. I learned that you can’t live life in a box.  You have to get out of your comfort zone, experience new things.  Meet new people, learn new things.  You have to use the hard times in life to be able to fully appreciate the good times.  You have to use those job rejection letters to feul you going forward.  Yet you have to be so happy that you are able to apply for jobs and that I was raised and brought up to keep trying.  I know that God has a plan  and we just need to let his plan take shape.  I have so many excuses.  I have so many fears.  I say, “God, I can’t do it.  I’m too weak, I’m too pathetic.  It’s impossible.”  But God looks back at me and says, “But beloved, since when did it become all about you?  It’s about me.  It’s my promise.  I will guide you.  I’ll never leave you.”

And that is what I have learned.  “A persons biggest challenge isn’t someone else.  It’s the ache in your lungs and the burning in your legs, and the voice inside you that yells, I CANT.”  But you don’t listen.  You just push harder.  And then you hear the voice whisper, “I can”.  And then you discover that person you thought you were is really no match for who you really are.”

I’ve learned that were here learn that there are no random acts.  That we are all connected.  That you can no more separate one life from another then you can separate a breeze from the wind.

Week 11

This 14 week journey is beginning to come to an end.  It seems like just yesterday we were leaving for Denver, and now we are starting to think about home.  This week brought excitement in a new form.  My parents.  They came out to visit this week and I got 5 days of them all to myself to show them around Denver and spew my knew knowledge all over them.

Last Friday after class, I went to go meet up with my parents at the B & B.  I took them down town to the 16^th street mall, to Larimer Street, to Tattered Covers, to the Capitol, and to the Molly Brown Museum all by about 4:30.  For dinner, we ended up at Pizza Fusion which not only has phenomenal food, but also is a good cause.  All the people who work there are in transitional housing and work there in order to get back on their feet. 

Saturday, I met up with them at their B & B for breakfast and then we headed out.  We first went out to Red Rocks Amphitheatre.  I don’t think they knew how amazing it was going to be, but I’m pretty sure they both had their breath taken away by how beautiful and amazing it was.  After that, we drove up look out mountain for a funny tour of the buffalo bill museum, and then went up to his grave which had amazing views.  We drove down the mountain, got lunch at a small diner in Golden, and then went to tour the Coors Factory.  The tour was audio guided and sort of boring, but it was still cool.  After the Coors Factory, we walked around town a bit, and then headed back to Denver.  To finish off the night, we went out to eat at CityGrille, home to the City’s best burger.  And boy oh boy was it good.

Sunday, my parents went with Sarah and I to Denver Community Church.  I did not think they would like it as it is sort of contemporary, but they said they liked it.  And the pastor got them laughing which is always good J After church, we went to buffalo doughboy bakery for a light lunch and then went out to a wine tasting at a local vineyard.  Afterwards, we headed out to Cherry Creek and walked around the mall a bit before deciding we were tired.  For dinner, we went to Casa Bonita.  People don’t go there for the food, but for the experience.  They had cliff divers, a mariachi band, gun fights, and juggling gorillas.  I wasn’t a fan of the food, but it was still sort of cool.

Monday morning, I had class again, so after class, I took my parents to the Delectable Egg for lunch.  Afterwards, we headed out to Boulder.  Boulder is a lot closer to the mountains and still really cool.  Plus, the tea factory is there.  We drank lots of tea, and had a fun tour in which dad recognized pretty much all of the equipment.  And I got to go back to the peppermint room which was AMAZING! We drank some tea for a while, and then headed down to the Pearl Street Mall where we walked around, watched some street performers, and got a nice Italian dinner. 

Tuesday we had a pretty laid back day.  We had breakfast at Jellys, and then went out to the Hammond Candy Factory.  We drove around CityParke, ate at D Bar Desserts, and then went out to Aurora to shop a little.  We also walked around South broadway a little before saying goodbye.  It wasn’t tearful though, as I know I will see them so very soon. I enjoyed the time we had together and hope they did too J.

Wednesday I was back at work and it was check request day.  Laura’s family was in town, so she only worked a half day.  We worked quickly all morning in order to get everything done and touch base about how we were splitting up responsibilities while Laura was gone.  We were working on getting check requests for the next to Early Bird Drawings done as well as the Grand Prize Drawing.  That meant  I had about 330 check requests to do.  Luckily, I could just photo copy and fill in numbers so it was fairly painless.  I also sent out another round of the survey today and spent a lot of time responding to comments on that.  Thursday was a fairly laid back day.  We still had people out sick and people at meetings all day.  I spent the morning responding to survey comments and doing some social media stuff.  We went out to lunch, and then after lunch I did some work with the survey, writing letters, and doing some more research on guerilla marketing.  Marietta Schemell came today to take pictures of me at the site so that offered a nice short afternoon break. 

This weekend is St. Patricks Day.  I have a lot of work to get done, but I think we should be able to have some fun too J

Week 10

Wow! It is so incredibly hard to believe that in less than a month, I will be in the car back home! Tomorrow morning, my parents arrive for 5 days of touring, roaming, eating, and just being reunited.  It has been 10 weeks since I left home and what an adventure.
On Monday, I started the day in class.  In religion class, we had 4 people present on their engaging politics project.  It was interesting to hear what other organizations people are working with and what these organizations are doing for the community of Denver.  After class, I met up with Amy Arnold again in Washington Park before she left town.  We walked around a little bit and got a chance to talk a little again which was really nice.  After that, Brittni, Marcela and I went to AFSC, the organization I am politically engaged with, to head out to a vigil/rally in Aurora to protest the new ICE policies and their new set of raids and silly other stuff they are doing.  There were about 50 people at the rally at the peak point and it was interesting to talk to people and hear their stories and hear about why they are there.  After the rally, we came back to the apartments, and I spent the night watching TV (although there was nothing on) and just hanging out with Nicole.
On Tuesday, I went back to work.  I worked on raffle (surprise!) and also began to write some newsletter stuff for the summer newsletter.  Over lunch, Ben and I wrote the volunteer newsletter and then I  priced some more golf balls before finishing out the day writing thank you notes for raffle.  I finished my long list of thank you's which was super nice, and then came home.  I spent the night just chilling which was nice to not have anything to do.
On Wednesday, I woke up excited for the Raffle Drawing today.  Needless to say, I was a little disappointed after all the build up.  In the morning, I met Daniel from Raffle Admin which was a little interesting, but went well.  He is a nice guy and not at all what I expected from the emails we had exchanged.  Daniel and Erin and Laura went to a PR meeting and I stayed at the office.  I got my work done at 1130, in time for our lunch meeting, but the early PR meeting went long, so I just hung out a little bit and worked on various things.  When the three others came back with lunch, we had a lunch meeting which was interrupted with the CEO came in and started talking taxes.  He thinks he knows all about accounting, but really he doesn't so it was interesting to listen to that conversation.  As soon as we were done, the auditors showed up to meet with Daniel and audit the tickets and such.  Seemed fairly painless. I went back to my office and cut up email addresses for the survey drawing I would do later in the day.  Around 2:45, Laura and I got the barrel drum, and loaded her car and headed over to the Cope branch.  I started interviewing a few kids about their dream house, what they'd do with 25,000 dollars, etc.  At 3:20, I headed to the gym to film the drawing.  Once we got started, it took about 3 minutes to give away $40,000.   It was crazy.  WE had a few people there watching, but none won.  After the drawing, I interviewed a few more kiddos, before we headed back to the support center.  We had to shred all the non winning tickets, and then call the winners.  Let me tell you, shredding over 15,000 takes about 15 minutes, and fills our huge "to shred" bin.  After that, Laura, Daniel, Erin and i started calling the winners.  To hear their excitement was awesome.  We collected some stories from them and chatted a bit, Erin cried when she called the winners, and then we were done.  Erin and i then pulled survey winners, I email them, and finally left work on a bus shortly before 6 pm.  I did not make it home in time for class, so when I got home about 7:10, I wrote a couple of papers, sent some emails, and watched a movie.  I was exhausted after the long day.
Today, Thursday, was quite different.  I had nothing on my plate at work.  Erin was gone all day at a couple of meetings, a funeral, and a youth of the year dinner.  Laura had no work she needed help with.  It left me with very little to do.  I wrote a story for the summer newsletter, sent some more surveys, and then just spent the afternoon chilling.  I felt bad not doing any work, so started asking around to see if anyone needed help, which no one did.  It made for a very long day, but i got to leave at 415 rather than 445 since i worked late yesterday.  Tonight I have some homework to get done and need to clean the apartments, but other than that, I am just chilling in preparation for my parents coming tomorrow, which I am SUPER excited for.
We have a packed schedule of things to do, but we have some free time, and it will be fun to catch up with them and just spend time with them.
Were going to visit the Molly Brown house, go to red rocks, go to the tea factory, do pearl street, 16th street, the Coors factory, the Hammond chocolate factory, the winery, and the buffalo bill museum.  Five days of my parents all to myself :) I cannot wait :)

That is all for this week!  Check back next week to read about all that my parents and I Did!

End of Weekend Post

It is so hard to believe that we are done with another weekend.  In just 5 short days, my parents will be here for some fun, reunited time together. I can;t believe that they will be here for 5 full days!  Five days of having my parents to myself.  I don't have to share them with anything but the people we encounter on our tours!  We will be doing a lot of things and seeing a bunch of places, but it will  be incredible!

This weekend was an incredibly beautiful weekend here in Denver. I did a lot of homework, and watched some movies.  It was nice to not have to set an alarm and be able to just sleep and chillax.  Sunday morning, Sarah and i went back to Denver Community Church, and it felt like home again.  It was a nice time of praising God, and talking more about confession.  Although it doesn't seem like a happy topic, it was very engaging, open, and easy to understand.  I am really enjoying this church and having a faith community again.

I'm starting to think about life after Graduation, and life's return to Iowa.  Starting the long process of applying for jobs, thinking about where I want to move to, what kind of job I want, how life will be, how to keep in touch with people, etc.  Thinking about everything I have to do before I come back to Iowa and when I get back to Iowa.  It is so strange to think that in less than 3 months I will be an alumni of Wartburg College. It seems like just last week I was graduating high school and now the baby of the family is graduating college.  Crazy.  What will life bring?  What is next?  Where is next?  Only God knows.  But slowly and surely, he will reveal his plans to the rest of us.  Until then, it's time to sit back and enjoy the journey.

Week 9

Welcome to week 9 in Denver!  That means 5 weeks left! This week brought some new adventures at work, some old adventures at work, and in general, some stress and fun. 

Last weekend, I toured Sports Authority Field at Mile High (where the Broncos Play), hung out in Washington Park (it was about 60 degrees), and did some exploring of Cherry Creek.  Other than that, I think I just hung out. Sunday morning, I went to a new church (after 4 or 5 failed attempts at finding a new church) that I fell in love with.  (Reflections on church in a separate post).  We also just hung out in some nice weather and aired out the apartment.  Because this week was break week at Wartburg, we did not have class this week. It allowed for some extra time to just relax and get some extra work in.  Monday, I met with someone from the American Friends Service Committee to start volunteering with them with a class assignment.  After that, I went over to one of the Boys & Girls Clubs to volunteer for a few hours.  I have really enjoyed spending time with the kids at the Clubs and getting to know them and seeing them get excited when they figure out the answer to a math problem or when they are able to finish reading a book. 

Tuesday morning, I found myself back at work.   I really like my internship.  It was sort of a busy week at work this week.  Last Friday was the first Early Bird deadline for the raffle, so we had sold about 4,000 tickets while I had had time off.  I then had to hand check all of those names and write thank you notes to about 45 people who had purchased 4 or more tickets.  It kept me quite busy for a few days.  Tuesday night, I went to another one of the Boys &Girls Clubs to volunteer.  When I am at this Club, I spend a lot of time breaking up fights over the wii.  It is crazy and high energy and drains me, but I still enjoy it. 

Wednesday, I continued writing thank you notes, continued working on thank you notes, and attended some meetings with my boss, prepared for Thursday’s big day.

Thursday, I met my supervisor at 5:30 AM.  Yes, ridiculously early.  We headed to the Pepsi Center for a fundraiser breakfast. We had about 250 people show up for breakfast and learning about Gates Camp, properly dubbed, “The most funnest place on earth.”  After being at the Pepsi Center for 3.5 hours, I was finally able to leave with one of my supervisors.  We stopped at Starbucks before heading back to work.  At work on Thursday, I did some raffle work with the survey, before heading to an All Staff meeting about the new benefits plan.  It really got me thinking about life after college and how much I really know about this stuff.  Which is nothing.  After the meeting, I decided (without thinking) to sort the master raffle file to see how many people had bought 4 or more tickets, but at separate times.  I came up with about 30 more names that I now have to write thank you notes too.  All in a days work I guess. 

Thursday night, I met up with someone I met through A Christian Ministry in the National Parks. Their main office is located in Denver, and one of the people I met lives only a few blocks away, so I went over to her apartment for a nice dinner and a time to catch up.  It was super nice to be away from the apartments for a night and have a nice meal with her.

Friday was a special day.  There was a service trip from Wartburg in Denver, and one of my friends who graduated last year, Amy, was in town.  I had to work with AFSC in the morning, but after I was done there, I went down to 16^th street and got to hang out and catch up with Amy and also spend the afternoon and evening with the people on the service trip.  Both were amazing things.  Being able to reconnect with these people who I have spent so much time with in the past was nice. 

Today is Saturday.  I was going to go to the Art museum, but decided time would be better spent catching up on homework and taking it easy.  I have a lot of work to do in preparation for going to Texas and for RICE day on campus.  And, some class work I want to try to get ahead of.  Also knowing that this coming week will be busy with the early bird drawing makes me want to get ahead on some work. 

Hope you all are having an awesome weekend and see you soon! 

Reflections on Church

Sarah and I attended Denver Community Church last week and I was amazed at home at home it already felt.  We got there about 10 minutes before the service was supposed to start and were welcomed and told to choose any seat.  As we sat and waited, I noticed all the different types of people there.  There were college students, young adults, old adults, and some elderly people.  The service started singing some contemporary songs.  I hadn’t heard of a couple of the songs, but it was still cool to see everyone singing along and praising God.  There were a couple people with hand raised, but no one really shouting amen or anything like that. It was a lot like a mix between Open Bible and Prairie Lakes. As we finished singing, one of the associate pastors came up and talked to the congregation about human trafficking and a couple members of the congregation who had moved to Africa (I think) to combat the human trafficking.  After that, the main pastor came up and started his message.  He talked about confession (since it was the start of lent) and how we deal with confession and peoples responses to our confession. How does confession fight into our ‘flight or fight’ response?  Which resonates stronger inside of us?  Do we fight and not confess anything?  Or do we use the flight response and confess something?  How do people respond when we confess things to them?  Does their response change our habit of confessing?  What is the impact of all of these things on our life?   It got me thinking about what myself and others are focused on in life.  Are we focused on hiding, like Adam and Eve after eating, or are we focused on giving our lives to God?  The pastor talked about how God always follows through even when we don’t listen to him.  He will always be there when we need to confess and will be there when we don’t confess.  Everything in life starts and ends with understanding who we are and where we are in life.  In order to get there though, we have to start understanding who we are ourselves.  What are we hiding from others that we should be confessing?  For so long, I hid so much.  Yet now, I am able to ‘confess’ most of that.  Yet, is there still a hidden self when we confess?  Psalm 32 starts by saying, “Happy are those whose sins are forgiven…” And doesn’t it feel good when we confess stuff to people and they understand and are able to hold us and help us through it?  I found this song this week, well more it really stood out to me this week.  It’s called, Oh My Dear by Tenth Avenue North.  I thought about how much it describes my relationship with a couple of people, and it went pretty well with this sermon from church.

I cannot wait to attend church again at Denver Community Church.