My oh my. I wasn't sure if I would ever have a reason to dust off this blog and post one more time. There was no guarantee it would ever happen as many NCCC promise they will find a way to get back together post graduation, but as with so many things, life gets in the way. I am happy to say, that with a touch of procrastination and a lot of planning, Silver 5 got back together last month.
When I first got the confirmation from my former teammates Tucker and Ellen (who are now married by the way! Isn't it crazy how a year of national service together can change one's life in so many ways) that we were all clear for a trip out to Venice Beach, California together I did a little dance in the privacy of my living room. While I have seen members of Silver 5 a handful of times post service I knew it would mean so much to all of us to have a planned reunion. While Tibbs was unable to make it in person, for a few moments (with the help of Skype) there we all were in one room together after having made flights from all across the country to spend a weekend together.
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| Andrea, Kaitlin, Tucker, Myself, Ellen, Jules. |
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| On the front porch of our awesome rental house in Venice Beach. |
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| Da boys. |
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| Da girls. |
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| On our way for more beach time. |
To say that we had a blast would be an understatement. After so much time had passed we still melded together as one cohesive unit. Except this go around we didn't have to work together to clean chainsaws as much as we were really only obligated to party it up and enjoy each other's company. I wish I had more words to say about this AmeriReunion, but I am so overcome with thankfulness to still have these wonderful people in my life. We went through so much together in our short time in national service. I am forever grateful to have had them beside me on our journey.
Being together for the weekend reminded me of how grateful I am for them as well as the challenges we faced during our tenure together. Looking back on this blog, the work was often difficult to feel energetic and enthusiastic about - but I would do it all over again if I could. I owe so much to my time working through projects like El Dorado wildland firefighting. So if you happen to stumble across this blog looking for reasons to do NCCC - I hope you find a little nugget of it here. The experiences, the emotions, and the friends - all of those things gained in NCCC will last you a lifetime.