Sweet Home Colorado

My new back yard, Rocky Mountain National Park

It’s 3:30 in the morning and the sound of my alarm brought me out of the daze of an attempted sleep. Three hours until my flight. Can’t I just hit the snooze button one too many times and miss it? I turned on the lights and looked around my room – photos of friends and family, post cards from around the globe, my favorite books, paintings of palm trees and the ocean… The mirror across the room reflected the sign above my bed – “La Vita è Bella,” “Life is Beautiful” in Italian.

Life is beautiful. Life is full of adventure, life is unpredictable, life is challenging, life is a roller coaster, life is terrifying, but beautiful nonetheless. Whatever life was about to bring, I was ready.

I climbed out of bed and gathered my belongings – 10 months of clothing packed up in one single suitcase. I sat down for my last breakfast at home with my mom and brother. I don’t remember much of what was said over breakfast, I don’t remember hugging my mama goodbye, I don’t remember the drive to the airport with my brother. All I remember from that morning is holding back tears and the woman charging me 90 dollars for my bag being 3 pounds overweight. I had lost the key to the lock on my suitcase on the way to the airport so I could not take anything out. Bummer. When I told her that she was charging me more than I would be making in a week, she told me that since I was doing community service, the money would eventually come back to me tenfold… Still waiting.

I got on the plane and was asleep before takeoff. When I opened my eyes, a beautiful panorama of the Rocky Mountains opened up before me. Even though only two months had passed since my last time in Denver, when I passed through on my cross-country road trip in July, seeing it from the sky was truly breathtaking.

When I got off the plane I was greeted by an AmeriCorps NCCC staff member who directed me to the check-in booth. I waited in line and made small talk with the people around me. “Where are you from? How old are you? What unit are you in?” Wait, unit? I suppose having been accepted only two weeks prior to the program’s start gave me a bit of a disadvantage, but nothing that wasn’t fixed within hours of my arrival.

I was assigned to the Sun Unit, and told to wait in the airport lobby alongside about fifty other people – people from all over the United States, ages 18 to 24, high school graduates and people with their bachelor’s degrees, a diverse group of people with the desire to serve, help others, and figure out the next step in life bringing them all together. Two hours of waiting, introductions and conversations later, we were on the bus heading to campus.

On the ride, I made my very first AmeriFriend  – Dylan, a fellow East Coaster who graduated from UConn, had an extensive travel resume and wanted to take the next year to figure out what he wanted in life. Yes, I was finally home.

Sunset over the Rocky Mountains - view from the dining hall of my new home, Colorado Heights University