Being an Americorps VISTA can sometimes be a thankless job. Not a lot of people understand what it is we do, and some don't even know we exist. We put in a lot of hours without a lot of pay. We come in at night and on the weekends and are still considered to have an "easy job." (This is actually a long story that I have been avoiding while my rage subsides. I'll try to write about it in the next couple of days).
I try not to let it bother me, and honestly, it usually doesn't. I feel like the point in being a VISTA isn't to get recognition or applause. The point is to help as many people as I can.
Still, appreciation is much appreciated. Last week was National Americorps Appreciation week, and Friday morning the VISTAs from all around the state of Ohio met up in Columbus to work together on a different kind of service project. Some people sorted clothes at homeless shelters, some promoted the VISTA program to local high schools, some planted gardens. Kaitlyn and I were each assigned to pick up trash in the town of Linden, which is one of the lowest-income neighborhoods in Ohio. We split up into groups of four or five and were given a supply of work gloves, trash bags, and those handy litter-picker-uppers (I'm pretty sure that's the technical name).
The day went by pretty fast. My group had a lot of fun getting to know one another and trying to find the most interesting piece of litter (I won't get into some of the things we found. Let's just say I'm glad we had gloves). And once we finished our block in the neighborhood, it really did look much nicer.
After about two and a half hours of cleaning up the neighborhood, all the VISTAs met at a movie theater called Studio 35 and were given free pizza and popsicles while we watched "The Princess Bride" (INCONCEIVABLE!) All in all, it was a really fun day. I love meeting up with the other VISTAs to see what everyone else has been up to.
Unfortunately, I did not take a single photo while I was in Columbus. It's not easy to carry a heavy bag of trash and trash-picker-upper anyway. I didn't want to have to carry my camera around, too. But I did want to include a photo in this blog post, so at the risk of getting off topic and delving slightly deeper into my personal life, here's a picture of my cat, Albert. Work-related note: This photo is now my desktop picture for my work laptop.
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