das boots!

WOW!  Today was wildly crazy! It started out with PT and ended with boots! That's right...we got our boots!  It's been three hours since we found out and I think everyone is still so giddy.   Let's start from the beginning....

We got to Copley Square around 7:30 to find out that our red vests had come in. This was such an awesome surprise because City Year is known for their red.  One major symbol of City Year is the red jacket and next week, to end training, we have a red jacket ceremony.  So, even though the vest isn't our jacket, it's still a major piece of CY swag.  So, that was before PT even started. We were definitely feeling the excitement though as we ran through our routine and got ready for our first try at earning our boots.

Let me preface this by saying that I know it sounds kind of silly that we have to do all of this to get Timberland boots, but you just have to buy into the cheesiness of it all. Plus, the competitive side of me (that I didn't really knew existed until now) has come out with my room mates and I was determined to get my boots on the first day.

So anyways...Erica found out what our mystery move was five minutes before start so we quickly ran through it one last time before we all sat on the steps ready to watch the first team go.   We  were the seventh team to be called, which was nice, but it meant there was time for us to watch the other teams and get nervous.  As we were watching, there were some teams who were not as in sync as we were, but there were other teams that definitely had their routine down.  When our time came, I was shaking I was so nervous, but it was great. Everyone loved our call backs (what the rest of the team says when we introduce ourselves) and our own little flare that we had added.  After we were done, it felt good to have finished and I felt pretty good about how we did, but it's hard since we weren't watching to tell if we were all in sync. After we were done, there were still seven other teams to go, so we watched them before heading back to HQ for a day of training. We knew all along that we wouldn't find out until the end of the day, so we were prepared for a long day of waiting.

Training was good. We got into our Idealist Journey (IJ) groups which was nice. Our IJ groups will meet a few times a month on Fridays when we're at HQ to talk about any issues we may be having. No one from our team is on them, so if we are having issues with someone or something on our team, this is where we talk about them. It's also where we can talk about LACY (Life After City Year) and compare strategies that are being used at the different schools. It seems like it'll be a great resource and my IJ leaders are cool.  

At the end of the day, the best part of training was to come. Erica had been talking about this all week, but hadn't really gone into any detail about what it was. All she said was to be ready for Senior Corps Community Meeting and it would be the best hour of training. Thanks for all the details, Erica...not. When four o clock rolled around, we were waiting in the lobby for something we knew nothing about. We took a seat in the Civic Forum and waited. All of a sudden, all of senior corps comes dancing in and singing with the lights off.  For the next hour, they talked about why they served, students they had worked with that they had made a difference in and how City Year had changed them. It was so cool because it's something that we don't really have a ton of time to talk about, nor do I want to ask a random corps member about when I don't know them, but definitely inspiring.  Each team will be in charge of planning a community meeting, so we'll get to share our stories, sing a little, and dance a lot at some point this year, which will be awesome. I love hearing other people's stories and how they have been impacted by certain events.

After all of that, it was time to find out who earned their boots.  We had been told that only two teams had earned it last year, so I was nervous since there were so many good teams. When Tom came to the stage, we all grabbed hands as a team. I felt the butterflies in my stomach and I think everyone was shaking.  The room got dead silent and he started announcing teams. It was awesome because everyone cheered when he called a team, even if it wasn't their team.  He called five teams and on the sixth, we heard NHCS! I was elated and we all jumped up and screamed! It was so exciting! It's nice to know that we don't have to practice anymore and that we weren't just all talk. If you click here ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFmvLMckCQM ) you can watch our PT routine and actually see what I'm talking about.

Last, thanks so much for reading all of my blogposts. When I started it, I figured it would be my mom and dad reading it (love you guys!) but it means so much to me that my friends and extended family have continued to read all of my blogposts, as well as my parents. It means a lot to me, so thanks!