Home Sweet Scranton

^ In case anyone was wondering, this is the sign you'll see when you're approaching the exit for Scranton, PA (ya know, if you were feeling adventurous and wanted to come visit the Scranton JVC house *wink*wink*).

So recently I've been settling into things here in Scranton, getting acclimated at work, starting to develop a normal routine of things around the house, and the like.  I've also been creating some good "blog karma" by following some of my friends respective web-ventures as they embark on similar service experiences, or study abroad opportunities.  As it just so happens, I read a very interesting post by my friend from school, Anna, about her time spent studying abroad in South Africa this semester.  Anna's posts are typically packed with quick-witted little quips about her adventures within the program and the people she meets along the way. This post was markedly different from posts I had read in the past, most notably because it wasn't full of happy-go-lucky anecdotes or incredible pictures of mountains that you might liken to a work of artistic brilliance.  Her post centered around her apprehension with accepting the less exciting parts of her journey in South Africa.  She came to realize that in order to immerse yourself into another culture, you need to develop a sense of "normal" there - not that fun hiking trips and bungee jumping adventures aren't awesome, of course - but it's unrealistic to think that when spending an extended period of time in a new place, there won't be times when things slow down and you're just there, and that's OK.

I tell you this story because (and I'm not sure if it's in larger part due to my reflecting upon Anna's post) time in Scranton seems to be slowing down.  Not literally, of course, I'm not talking about some Sci-fy time travel plot reminiscent of that awful J. Timberlake movie "In Time", but just that the weeks start to become more routine as we adjust to our lives here and get comfortable with the Scranton area. The real question then becomes, how do we address/view/understand this standardization of our weekly routines?  Do we settle into the comfortable pattern we've developed and allow time to pass by without interruption?  Or perhaps we actively work to disrupt this pattern, for fear of the dreaded monotony of "the work week".  I think the answer is somewhere in between.  Yes, we want to make the most of our time here in Scranton and the journey we're on as Jesuit Volunteers and there will definitely be times during this year when we do, see, and experience some incredible things.  But that's no reason to frown upon the moments that aren't quite as awe-inspiringly eventful.

In fact, those exceptions might not define our experiences as much as we like to think they do.  After all, there's an Aristotelian quote that comes to mind, "we are what we repeatedly do.  Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit."  So are we boring people if our lives start to consist of repetitive routines of eat, work, sleep, repeat?  I don't think so.  I think the perceived monotony of routines is solely a product of our choice to see those experiences that way.  Perhaps by simply framing the situation differently in our minds we can avoid the negative self-talk that occurs when we think of falling into routines in our lives.  So yes, I am developing a routine here in Scranton, and yes, that routine does get repetitive at times, but I choose to frame that reality as a positive thing.  I wouldn't be developing a routine here if this place wasn't becoming more comforting to me, if it wasn't becoming a place I can call home.  I wouldn't be developing a routine here if I wasn't enjoying the company of my housemates, coworkers, and all of the people I've met on my journey thus far.  And I certainly wouldn't be developing a routine here if I wasn't - in small ways - falling in love with Scranton and my life here.  It's not to say that every moment of the journey has been (or will be) incredibly amazing/exciting/life-changing, but that I'm accepting of the way in which the journey has been unfolding, both the good times and the bad.  So, no offense to Aristotle, but perhaps it's not what we repeatedly do that makes us who we are, but how we do what we do that defines us.  So I'm striving to do my year of service with a smile on my face and love in my heart.  Because if smiling and loving become indelible parts of who I am, I figure I can live with that.

All my love,
Tom

Make the Days Count

We're quickly approaching the completion of our first whole month of JVC!  September 9th will officially mark that day, but some of our FJV support staff are coming over for a celebratory/thank you/'yayyy it's the weekend' dinner this Saturday in honor of our first big milestone!

So, what exactly have you been doing in Scranton for the past few weeks, you may ask?  Well as I alluded in my last post, my roommates and I have been adjusting ourselves into a regular work schedule.  Most of us work normal Monday to Friday type jobs, although Abbie works every other weekend, David's Youth Group meetings are on Sunday nights, and my hours are 1-9pm Tuesday-Thursday...so scratch that, none of us really have "normal" jobs.  But I guess that's kind of the point, right?  There's nothing entirely "normal" about what we're doing here this year.  

A few of the talks at orientation centered around the concept of the counter-cultural nature of our work with JVC.  Essentially, how it is that much of our American culture does not condone the idea of going off to live in a city you've never been to before, to live with people you've never met before, and work a job you've never done before...without being paid.  And trust me when I say that this reality hit hard for me as nearly every conversation I had about my decision to join the JVC served as a constant reminder.  Questions of: Why would you do that?  How are you going to survive?  Do you really think you're going to change the world, or something, by doing this? all swirled around my head as I prepared for the upcoming year.  As I had very little knowledge of the program, my job, or Scranton in general, my answer was always somewhat lackluster and centered around feeling as though it's what I have to do.  But, I must say, after just this short period of time here I'm starting to see why I felt so called to be here. 

Let me explain, this weekend (as I'm sure you know) was Labor Day weekend.  In the holiday spirit, the Baltimore JVC house - another house of 5 JVs centered in MD - invited other JVs from the Northeast to a party at their house.  If you know me, you know that it would take an act of God to keep me away from a good party, and so my roommate Ally and I went to Baltimore.  Getting to see and hear from all the different people I had met at orientation just a few short weeks ago was amazing.  They all had such rich and varied stories about their respective cities, the type of work they've been doing, as well as many of the challenges that arise living in accordance with JVC's core values.  Strange as it seems, although it had only been about two and a half weeks since I had last seen these people, it felt as though it had been years.  The experience gave me a heightened sense of awareness to the value of being present in our daily lives, of choosing to actively participate in the world as opposed to sitting idly and watching life pass by.  I have a 'Quote of the Week' type project I've been working on, and this week on my whiteboard I've featured Muhammad Ali as he once said "Don't count the days, make the days count."  I feel as though that's part of what this journey has taught me already, that making each and every day count and valuing each moment of the time we have here on earth is what life is all about.  And so, my apologies if it's not the momentous epiphany you were expecting, but JVC has taught me to make the days count, and I'm grateful for that.  

View from the Baltimore Harbor during our visit to the JVC house down there.

In less "self-reflective" news, work has been going pretty well.  I work for United Neighborhoods Centers of Northeast Pennsylvania (or UNC for short).  My official duties will entail coordinating programs for youth in the area to participate in as an alternative to them being on the streets after school.  I'm most excited for the diverse populations of people and experiences I'm sure to encounter during my time at UNC, it's an enormous non-profit - the largest in the area - and so there's no shortage of programs to get involved with this year!  Also, much to the envy of my roommates, on my first week of work I was invited along on an photography outing with the kids who participate in the after school photography group.  We went to Penn's Cave and had a blast!  I have some photos, but don't be too critical!  It was only my first day of photography class.

The entrance to the cave

Big points if you can differentiate Stalagmites
& Stalactites! (Sorry, science major habit)

Other fun things in Scranton? Well, they're big fans of festivals around this town.  We've been to two in the past two weeks.  Last weekend for Labor Day was La Festa Italiana, which features some of the most delicious Italian food ever created in the Western Hemisphere - I had amazing calamari as well as buffalo hot wing pizza (A favorite from Mary's back home).  Two weekends ago was a parish festival that supports one of the biggest parishes around, and coincidentally the one my roommate David works for, St. John Neumann.  At that festival Caroline and I were talked into working (imagine that, volunteers...volunteering) and I'm proud to say that in one night I not only tasted my first potato pancake, but I also mass produced about 500 more!

My novice skills were put to the test fairly
quickly that day - I didn't burn too many! 

So far I've pinned Scranton as a place of many churches, a place with almost as many - if not more - pizza joints, and I'd like to add one more to that list.  I'm not sure if it's just the time of year or the Pocono Mountains in the distance, but Scranton has some of the most beautiful sunsets you can imagine.  We've seen some great ones over there past few weeks and I wanted to share one in particular with you.  It's a constant reminder that though our year of service may get hard at times, God is undoubtedly present here with us to help us through.  We can see it in the beauty of the world that surrounds us, if only we are present enough in our lives to take the time to notice.

God Bless,
Tom