Towards a Joyful Soul

New Orleans is so often characterized- a city of jazz and Mardi Gras. New Orleans is so often victimized- a city of poverty and Hurricane Katrina. Over the last month of living in New Orleans, I haven't lived in THAT city: the one of extravagant parties and extraordinary pain. But there's definitely a different culture here. ~ I remember having to give a speech at a youth camp in Austria about the differences between US American culture and Austrian culture; sharing the differences between my mom's culture and my dad's culture. Most of the differences seem pretty small, so the differences are kind of hard to explain. In Austria, school children take public transportation instead of having specific school buses, colleges and universities don't have exorbitant tuition rates, people regularly buy loaves of bread from the bakery instead of pre-sliced manufactured loaves, etc. They all seem small and they're not all exclusive to one culture, but each thin...

The novelty and excitement has already worn off. It didn't last long. Working 9 to 5 is exhausting. College didn't prepare me to work 9 to 5. For the last four years, I've basically been able to set my own schedule and do a lot of work from my bed. I didn't have to go out into the world or interact with people unless I really wanted to. I came home and could hide in my room or interact with one of my two apartment-mates. But for the last two weeks, I've had to leave my house by 8:30am, not to arrive home until 5:30 or 6pm. I spend the whole day in an office, calling people, answering phone calls, talking with my coworkers, talking with the residents. I like the work that I do, but as an introvert, it's exhausting. Then I come home to a house full of people, who I also want to catch up with to care for the house community. And this weekend, I don't even have Saturday off because we have our monthly community day. I want to pour into my work community,...

About a year and a half ago, I realized that if I sat down in the same position for too long, my whole leg would go numb. Not fun, but an easy solution: don't sit in the same position for too long. This past summer, though, my leg started getting worse, especially when I was trying to sleep. I had pain all the way down to my toes. That's when I got a bit scared. After a month of physical therapy, my physical therapist figured out the problem: my sacroiliac joint had come out of place. She readjusted it and my pain went away. So, for now, I need my SI joint readjusted about once a month or if I do something that's particularly bad for it (sitting for extended periods of time, playing golf or cornhole). I don't even have to keep going in to PT, anyone can readjust it! Easy peasy, lemon squeezy. While I was still at home, my dad would lovingly readjust my joint for me. But how do I tell 5 strangers that I just moved in with that I need one of them to pull on my...

This was my first week of work, so I figured you might want to hear a little about it! Here are 3 small vignettes that give an insight into the various aspects of my job and how this week went. 1) On my very first day, I was given a letter by our Program Director, "I don't know if this is a bill or not and I'm not sure if we have to pay it." I open it. I read it. It says that we haven't yet paid our water bill and we have 10 days for it to be paid before they will send a 3rd party collector. Clearly this needs to be taken care of soon. But where is the bill? How much is the bill? How can we get a check approved when our Executive Director is on vacation? Ok. I'll figure that our later. I look at emails. There was a response to an email that had been sent out the week before about times that a women would be available for a signature. Who is this woman? What is she supposed to be signing? Where is what she is supposed to be signing? Why does she have ...

"How do I live with guys?" Sympathetic laughter followed. That is the question I posed to the women's affinity group at national orientation. Here in New Orleans, our site is an outlier. We have 4 guys and only 2 guys. We've addressed the gender dynamics in various ways at our house so far.  We've endured the awkward silence and laughter as we discussed how much or how little is appropriate to wear around the house (for the guys  and  the gals). We've also discussed how safety in the city is different for women and should be a community concern rather than a burden only for the women. But I think it's harder to set guidelines for emotional aspects of gender dynamics. ~ On my first day of work this week, I came home exhausted. I had no physical, mental, or emotional capacity to deal with anything. Then one of the guy housemates made me so frustrated. I was so angry I felt sick to my stomach and started crying. My internal dialogue: Are these e...