7/8-7/13

hi againnnnnn :)

This week's topic: Recognizing when you are and aren't needed.

7/8:

This day was absolutely amazing. I got to spend the day with one of my closest friends, Lucy. Lucy is such a ray of sunlight and never fails to make me laugh histarically, so I always love spending time with her. Her and I spent from 12 pm to 8pm together constantly laughing and having so much fun. We went to providence town center, target, etc. Lucy is one of the friends you can talk about anything with and it'll stay safe. It's been hard on me lately coming to terms with a few things, but Lucy knew i needed her support and delievered. Always supporting me and my decisions, Lucy made my day. :)

7/9:

This day was pretty bland. I mostly hung around the house and worked on summer assignments. I did make sure to try and assist my mom with anything that she needed every couple of hours, but mostly she wanted to be alone. My mom works so so hard for everything we have and she deserves to have some time to just relax. I knew that it would be a better day for her if she was just resting away from me. Hopefully by giving my mom some time to herself, I made her day :).

7/10:

Today was supposed to start a new camp I was volunteering at for the week, but the camp had canceled on me. Unknowingly, I showed up to the camp ready to help out. I met with the cordinator, who explained that the camp had canceled on the week. Luckily, she offered to send me over to another watershed sponsored camp that was outside all day. I eagerly accepted and wow was that a great decision. I met the most amazing children and adults ever. I didn't know it then, but I was in store for an amazing week of learning, helping, and trying new things. The first day, I aided the adults in helping the kids learn to kayak. It was absolutely amazing seeing the kids get so happy from being on the water. Additionally, I got to see the new Little Mermaid movie with Grace. Together Grace and I LOVED the movie and had dinner together afterwards. She always makes me incredibly happy. So much love Grace :)). By helping the kids kayak and having this opportunity, my day was made and I made others days :)

7/11:

Second day of aiding with the floating classroom camp was even better. I was more prepared this time and brought all the necessary supplies (sunscreen, lunch, hat, etc..) fo have another successful day. Today, we kayaked even further and taught the kids about the pH levels of different substances. Here, I have a bit of knowledge about acids and bases, explaining that bases and acids were both dangerous in high quantities. Here, it was important to know when I would be helpful presenting extra pH facts or just letting the adult speak. Helping the kids understand why it's important to make sure the pH of the water is safe for life to flourish was absolutely amazing. They all loved animals immensely, so they wanted to make sure they were all doing well in the water. Especially notable, was a group of girls that had enjoyed my presence so much they invited me to sit with them all week. These girls were curious, kind, and above all adventurous. They all made my week infinitely better by being here and I'm so glad they enjoyed me too. Henceforth making eachothers days :)

7/12:

Today, I had to leave camp to watch my sister while my mom went into the office. My mom works in Trenton, NJ, so it's a far commute for her to make. Knowing she needed me, I acted quick to take care of her. So, I took off a day of volunteering to aid my mom by taking care of my sister alex. My sister is an amazing girl, but we have such an age gap that it's hard to connect sometimes. I try to make sure she isn't bored, but her attention span is low leaving her never occupied. We have an above ground pool at my house, so if we had good weather I intended to take alex out in it so she could have fun. The weather was scorching, so I asked alex to get suited up and go out to the pool. I love to swim, so it was a win win situation. We made a whirlpool, wave pool, and played multiple pool games. After taking her out for three or so hours, we went inside to get dried off and showered. Alex said that it was an amazing day, and I'm beyond happy to have delievered it to her. Henceforth, making her day :)

7/13:

Yesterday was my last day of volunteering at the floating classroom. Although I was so sad it was ending, we had such a fun day planned. We spilt the kids up into two groups and I aided my former science teacher Ms. Emers in directing the kids to the perkiomen creek. We kayaked first to the creek to look for makroinvertibres,so that we could see if the stream was healthy or not. It was super important to know when my help was needed here or not, so that no kids got hurt or felt too cramped. Then, we kayaked to the floating classroom boat to fish, relax, and talk about the importance of mussels. The children were all so grateful to have a relaxing lady day and I'm so lucky to have connected with these amazing people. At the end of the day, Ms. Emers gave me a round of applause for helping this week and I was absolutely thrilled. I loved helping this past week and receiving validation was so nice. I said goodbye to my amazing campers and reiterated to the adults how grateful i was to be with them for the week. After the time spent at camp, Grace and I hung out again and got food. We went to p.f. chang's and had a lovely dinner while playing a card game. We always have the best of times together and im incredibly lucky to know you Grace ♡ Therefore, they made my week and hopefully I helped them too :)

Absolutely fabulous week. I cant wait for the next.

Thank you :),

Iz