In the summer of 2009, I embarked upon an adventure that would ultimately become one of the biggest accomplishments of my life thus far. Being a day camp counselor for the Camp Adventure Youth Services program, I was given the opportunity to live on the Navy and Coast Guard base in Guam, working with kids who had parents in the military. It was not only an amazing experience, but provided me with some of my most treasured memories and an urge to continue traveling the world.
Returning back to Oregon at the completion of the summer program, my life picked up as if nothing had happened. My usual days spent on the beach with the kids had somehow transitioned into lots of hospital visits, a heart surgery, school, and just reality in general.
Unfortunately, due to my need to progress with my nursing school pre-requisites, I was unable to participate in Camp Adventure in 2010. Thinking my traveling experiences would be put on hold until my financial situation increased dramatically, I continued on with school, began working, and obtained my Certified Nursing Assistant license.
It wasn’t until June of this year that I decided I wanted to get back into contact with the Camp Adventure staff. Sending a general email requesting basic information on how I could participate again, I was informed that the summer programs had already been filled, however, they did have some openings for their internship programs. Mentioning it to my parents, it wasn’t even 24 hours before I was asking for more details regarding what the internship would entail. That night, I was eating Chinese food for dinner with my parents talking it over, when I opened up my fortune cookie. I was given two fortunes in one cookie and although I don’t believe in that kind of thing, I couldn’t help but think that I was meant to have that particular cookie.
I decided to go for it. And because it was such a sudden decision, I had to strategically plan out my summer to ensure that I got all the things done that I had originally planned on doing. I have been working as a CNA in a long-term care facility; I took a statistics summer school class, took some awesome road trips with my best friend, and have just completed my CNA 2 program.
In roughly two weeks, I will move to U.S Army Garrison Grafenwöhr in Germany for four months, as I complete my internship. Although I am not completely sure of what I will be doing, I am so excited to be able to travel again. I have been in contact with a few of the people I will be living with while in Graf, and they all seem like they’re going to be wonderful. We have even started planning out some places we want to travel to and things we want to do!
All I can say is that I hope Europe is ready for me!
