1st Week of the Crazies: Pleasantly Pleasing

This week I am the lead for a little Christian school of twelve sixth graders and two teachers who have worked with these kids since they were five years old. They are possibly my most favorite group of kids yet. Luke wears the same green beanie with a red stripe on it every day with his glasses and his special pencils. He is an artist and draws the most beautiful sketches of the birds and fish. You can tell from his constant inquiring look that he is quite possibly a genius and most definitely destined for greatness. Then there's Ben, who is the wise cracker, always having some clever witty commentary going on the side of what I am saying, which means he's usually getting the "look" from me and his teachers and has lost all his candy privileges for the week (but he's adorable and we're all laughing inside). Bret is so kind and helpful. Logan is lost in his own little world. Natalie is incredibly athletic and always by my side ready to get started. I could go on, but I believe that is enough. You don't know them. But they are truly a great little group and I am so happy they are one that are here for the whole week.

I have been doing better emotionally as well. I've had a lot more time on my hands since breaking up with my boyfriend, so I've spent most of that time reading. Sherlock Holmes has kept me company most days, with a few visits from Hannah Hernard and J. M. Barrie. Working with him still makes it hard to stop being attracted to him because he is so my type. However, I am now at the place where I am almost completely happy that we have broken up. It is definitely for the best and we both deserve better matches. I do know now better then I did before that I am really quite beautiful and worthy of being wanted. I've also learned so much about myself when it comes to the realms of how I react and view men that was only abstract conjecture before. And so I can say that I am not sorry that we dated in the first place, even though he now has my first real kiss (and I can never get that back). What I really miss is the fact that we can't just go back to being friends like we were before. I think I miss his friendship the most. The cuddling I'm sure will be even better with someone who really wants to be with me, but he was such a singular person and I so miss our conversations (back before he started scoffing at everything I had to say). And that is all the bitterness I will allow. Like I said, I am mostly happy that we broke up. But there is still a part of me that thinks he really made a poor mistake and ended something that could have just started to be a really good thing.

Preparing for Crazy

It's Sunday, the day before our first big crazy week of camp commences. This month is supposedly going to be insane! Hopefully I live through it without getting too fatigued, emotionally exhausted, or too sun burnt.

This past week was quite chill and enjoyable. I was with Firefly (not the lead, which means I didn't have to wake up early to do announcements!) with a group of 7th and 8th graders who were incredibly fun and charming. We didn't have any problem children and the principal who came with them who seemed to be cantankerous at the beginning of the week turned out to be rather wonderful and a whole lot of fun by the second day and beyond. I had charge of the 8th graders, although we mostly did everything together. Firefly and I got to spend some time together and I got to get to know her a bit better and I like her even more. She is such a sweet giving soul.

This weekend we were able to just relax and watched Saturday morning cartoons (Megamind) and played a lot of pool (which it turns out I'm not half bad at). Then we had a big game of ultimate Frisbee and I actually was able to catch and throw satisfactorily on occasion, which is a definite improvement!

Last week was also full of the first real sunshine and warm weather without a whole lot of wind that we have experienced all spring so far. Unfortunately I hear it's supposed to rain this week and it went back to cold, overcast, and windy this weekend. Which also means I had no chance to even out my tan. For the first time in my life I am actually tanning! However, I've been getting most of my tan on my legs during kayaking, which means that I now have some pretty dramatic top half and short tan lines on my legs that desperately need some evening out! However, hooray for skin that has finally learned how to work with the sun!

Emerald Bay is such a beautiful place to live and I feel that I have been living like crazy this spring, learning more about myself and life in general than I have in the past few years put together. What a life journey I've been on! It makes me wonder what God has in store for me next. All I know is that no matter how wonderful going back to school and starting my internship will be, I am going to dreadfully miss this place and this time with my new (sometimes slightly dysfunctional) MSA family.

We Need Help!

Hi Everyone,

Who ever would have guessed that the mountain camper bookworm would find herself teaching sixth graders about marine fish and birds on a beautiful island?! However, I am having quite the time of my life as God has once again blessed me royally with one more fantastic adventure.

I write now to tell you about something very important that the camp I work for, Mountain And Sea Adventures (http://www.mountainandsea.org), is putting on. They are in the midst of a fund raising drive in order to afford to bring at least one hundred (if not more) students from inner-city at risk schools to the island for a life changing marine science camp experience. Some of the kids will have never even seen the beach, let alone snorkeled or kayaked in it! The heart of this organization is huge and they need help pulling this off. And as much as I hate asking anyone for money, it is what is needed right now to make this dream a reality.

Therefore, if you have some extra cash from recently filing your taxes or you just find it exhilarating to help kids who have never had an opportunity like this one to experience a life changing adventure, then please go to their special Donor Website (http://kids2camp.blogspot.com/) where you can donate with ease. You can either give a one time gift, or participate in our monthly pledge system. And if you choose the latter, you will also be able to participate in receiving some rather amazing prizes that have been donated by caring businesses toward this cause. Also, by donating and mentioning that I was the one who asked you to, you will also be helping me to get some much needed paid time off to do some more pleasure hiking, kayaking, and snorkeling all over this incredibly beautiful island!

Please consider donating. I have already seen what even a few days here can change in the hearts of some of the campers I have been in charge of this spring. Our motto is "Break You Fears!" And I have seen a child so scared of getting in the water clinging to my neck finally stick her face and snorkel into the water and see a whole new world open up before her eyes. Then the problem was trying to get her out! We also fervently speak on and do games that are oriented toward Environmental Awareness, and I had one camper that was so inspired by the life she had seen in the ocean and by what plastic and pollution was doing to it all that she created a letter to the president and formed a school program to raise awareness and be part of the change that needs to happen to help keep our oceans and therefore our world a cleaner and healthier place.

This is what we are doing here. Please, if you can, help be a part of it by helping to send those who rarely ever get an opportunity such as this.

In His hands,

Mary Divine

beautylikehenna@gmail.com
www.beautylikehenna.com

A Difficult Week

This past week has been the most challenging week of my life here with MSA by far. And by challenging, I mean an emotional roller coaster of hard and difficult experiences.

My group this week was a holy terror all by themselves. To be honest, the campers were wonderful... individually. I had 3rd graders this week, which meant that they were all as cute as a button saying the darnedest things that made me crack up constantly when I wasn't trying to teach them. However, as a group in an outdoor teaching setting, having sixteen 3rd graders is quite the nightmare for one's nerves and vocal chords. They had to pea every fifteen minutes and they were constantly asking the most ridiculous off-topic questions. I almost completely lost my voice by the time they left only three days after they had arrived. But I really did love the kids. They even taught me some new dance moves strait from the hood; them being from the inner city. However, their main teachers were my two chaperons, and I have to admit I've never had a more difficult pair. I'm not even sure how detailed I can be in this blog, but let's just say I hope they never come back, and if they do; I hope I'm not here to deal with those two pills again. And can I just say that selfishness is one of the most annoying personality traits ever?!!

And that was only the first half of my week. The rest involved breaking up with my boyfriend and finding out that I had received remedial reviews from my dearly departed chaperons and was therefore asked to re-watch some of the classes I have been trained to teach and had been getting excellent reviews in.

Thankfully, all weeks must have their end. And this one ended with good friends all around me giving me more love than I knew what to do with. I still feel incredibly blessed to be here and am still very much in love with the island. It will always have a very special place in my heart. Every morning I awake with the sun and step outside to see it rising upon the waters just over Indian Rock. Sometimes there's even a pirate ship sailing by. And cormorants are usually flying in mass to feed upon some school of mackerel or sardines; a gleaming blackness across the shining waters.

This week I get a new group of fifth graders and yesterday I was taught how to sail a sail boat, so already things are looking up! I will try not to be too horribly boastful in saying how thrilled I was to successfully turn my boat around with the "boom" on my first attempt!

I am reminded of when I was a little girl taking swimming lessons with Miss Banita. She said I was a little fish who never wanted to leave the water. That feeling has returned and I don't know how I'll cope when in a month I have to leave for the desert and school once more.

I'm On Island Time ;)

Life is continuing to get better and better as the island continues to get warmer and sunnier. I also heard back officially from Azusa Pacific Un. and I got the graduate assistantship I wanted! I'll be working as a mentor for college students coming up with ideas and projects to better our community and to encourage higher education in middle schools and high schools. It's in the Research and Learning Center, which means that I'll have opportunities to present and possibly publish!

But enough about that! Santa Catalina Island is beyond beautiful, even when cold. And I am greedily cherishing each and every moment of my time here as I know it will end all too soon.

So, some of what I've done so far:

I finally was able to achieve diving in a wetsuit! If you are unaware, wetsuits are incredibly buoyant. They pretty much make you into a full-bodied flotation device. When practicing, I couldn't get myself any further than my rear, and then back to the surface I would come. This made diving for cool invertebrates at the bottom of the ocean to show my kids while snorkeling was rather difficult. However, a couple days ago I was able to dive successfully for the first time! I was snorkeling around and suddenly spotted a sea hair! They are a mollusk that is pretty much like a slug in the shape of a bunny (sort of). I was so excited that without thinking, I just dove for it and had it in my hands about ten feet underwater before I even realized I was under! It's also rather good that I don't mind touching slimy things, because the ocean is rather full of those kinds of things. :)

They're now making me the lead for different schools, which means that I've been getting to know the chaperons and teachers that come along with the campers better. This has been quite the positive experience on the whole. They have been so supportive and helpful. I find that I love doing this more and more.

This weekend will hopefully be one of the first lazy full weekends that we've had as a staff to just hang out together. Jules and I want to have a two hour ballet class, which hopefully will be joined by Debs, Melodie, and possibly Juan. Marcus and I are also trying to put together a group to go out snorkeling around Indian Rock, which is just outside our bay and looks like a wonderful place to see more marine life. I absolutely love everyone that I work with here and am so incredibly blessed. This is what continually pops into my head at random moments throughout the day... well, when the song from The Sound of Music isn't playing through my head as I gaze at the beautiful green hills all around me.

Here's some more pictures from the island. Enjoy :)



This is a Garibaldi fish, which happens to be the Cal. State Marine Fish and has the coolest Genis species name ever: Hypsipops rubicundus!

9 Interviews in 2 Days

The past two days have been an absolute whirlwind in a suit. I took my first step as a grad student, ending up interviewing for nine different graduate assistant internships in two days. I am thoroughly exhausted from having to talk about my strengths and weaknesses and why I want to go into Student Affairs. I start to shake at newly formed phrases that have been completely worn out and murdered, such as "deliberate mentoring," "supervisory preferences," and "intentionality."

However, as the pain in my toes from wearing oh so cute, but impractical heals started to ease on my way home barefoot in the car, I received a marvelous call. My first choice for internships called (even though I don't think they are actually supposed to do that) to say that I was their first choice as well! Thank you God! I'm in! And rather thrilled and honestly nervous to start this very new big step.

The internship's official title is: Coordinator for Student Development and Program Support in the Center for Academic Learning and Research. Yes, it's a mouthful! It sounds like my main duties will be mentoring an intimate group of undergraduate students while working as a team to create and implement different programs and events on campus as well as in the community that encourage further learning and the betterment of society. The staff seam absolutely lovely and very interested in encouraging the dreams of their staff members. We'll see how it goes!

And that is all that my brain can crank out at this time. But as always: there will be more to come sooner (or later).

Life is Shiny

This past week was my third week teaching outdoor education, but only second on Catalina Island (I spent one week teaching in the mountains of San Bernadino). It turned out to be quite a blast. I had fourteen seventh graders from a prep school, and they were the best set of kids yet! I loved them. And because they were all such good listeners, my two chaperons were involved and helpful, and they all seemed so interested in everything I was teaching, each of my classes seemed to go almost perfectly!

This was my third attempt at teaching Fish Lab, which involves getting everyone into a wet suit and snorkeling along the kelp forests and rocky reefs of Doctor's Cove, apparently considered to be one of the best places to snorkel in the world. My last attempt was an epic failure. If you've ever attempted to put on a wet suit (especially a Body Glove one), you will know the potential for torture that attempt can be. It took almost an hour and one of my chaperon's knuckles were bleeding by the end, and then we only had about fifteen minutes in the water seeing almost nothing at all for all that! Needless to say, I was rather filled with trepidation at having to repeat this class and have the same events follow. Thank the Lord, it couldn't have been a more different experience! The wet suits all went on in less than thirty minutes and we ended up spending almost forty minutes in the water snorkeling because we had the time and there was so much to see. There had been a storm the night before, which had apparently brought a lot of living creatures that are usually out further in the sea up to where we were. We saw all sorts of fish, swam through hundreds and hundreds of tiny jelly fish and other see-through creatures, spotted a huge black and blue spotted octopus, and a vast array of other invertebrates including sea snails, urchins, sea stars, and crabs.

I keep pinching myself to make sure all of this is actually real. How in the world did I get so lucky to be blessed with all of this?! I live and work on a beautiful and almost certainly enchanted island. I get to work at a camp again doing what I love and am good at. I've made some wonderful new friendships as well as had two old friends come work with me here too. My boyfriend (who I met during training) lives and works alongside of me. And we both have shiny future steps waiting for us in the fall in the shape of grad school.

And to know that all of this was entirely God setting things in motion by a random phone call because of a resume I sent out into ciber space a year before is a thought that always leaves me speechless. I wake up each morning to the sound of the ocean at my side with joy and thanks bubbling out of my heart.