juli number-cruncher neff

Well, the BIG day finally arrived... we woke up this morning and eagerly and nervously suited up and headed to the fifth floor classroom where we were to learn our fates...

We were each given a little slip of paper with separate clues on them and it was like a mad easter egg hunt. 60 people running all over campus, finding more clues that led to more clues. And finally we all found ourselves with a group of about 10 people, our "permanent teams" for the year. Though we're told we need to be flexible and allow some people to switch around sometimes and during our third round of spike everyone will be switched around, there still was A LOT of anxiety leading up to this day. I like most people I meet here. Everyone's pretty unique. Most people are pretty funny. But there are still those few who made it on my list of people I'd never want to work on a team with. So last night I went to bed with this odd familiar feeling, like Christmas Eve when you'd wonder if Santa was going to visit you or not and if just by wondering this, he would pass over your house just to spite you... I don't know how it connects, it just does.

So once we found out our teams, we had to figure out our project assignment. A LOT of nerves involved here too... you could be stuck in Denver tutoring kids or something (which is perfectly fine... I just am anxious to get out), or you could be one of the 6 teams heading to New Orleans to muck out houses that are still condemned and sleep in a FEMA tent (which sounds incredibly difficult and rewarding), or you could be part of the wildfire team that spends their first spike in chilly Chicago doing taxes for low-income families (I was so glad I wasn't a part of wildfire just for that reason).

All the wonderful options were jumping around my brain (I especially wanted a project somewhere in New Mexico or Texas camping or something) and everything came to a dead stop when I heard our assignment... doing taxes for low-income families in Detroit...

Anyone who knows me and my incredible hatred for numbers can imagine my reaction. But I've been thinking about it all day and little pieces of my brain are getting excited again. First, I feel really guilty that my oldest brother is doing my taxes again this year. I really wanted to learn so I could act grown up and now I will get to do them for 7 weeks straight... I might become a professional. Second, I will be in Michigan. Though it will be terribly cold along the lake and nothing like the warm Denver sunshiny days, I have been missing the midwest snow... alittle bit. And third, I didn't realize this til today, but this is an incredible opportunity to help out people in a very big way. These people might otherwise miss out on this money that belongs to them, money that will help pay bills and feed kids. They need this and it's free.

We're staying in a convent... should be interesting.

I've had the word taxes written on my hand for the past week or so, alittle reminder to call my brother and tell him where I hide all my important documents and stuff. Wonder if it was a sign...

So I'll be back in the midwest very soon! I leave on the 25th of February. We'll be taking about 3 or 4 days to get there. It's a 7 week project so we'll be back in Denver for our transition week by the 8th of April. It'll be fun to be closer to home.