Volunteers - Rachel Cramsey
Hi, curious readers, I'm Rachel Cramsey. I am originally from Quincy, Illinois, a blossoming town of about 40,000 that is located alongside the Mississippi River. I graduated from Illinois College, a small liberal arts college in Jacksonville, IL, (about half an hour from the state capital of Springfield, IL) with a bachelors of arts in English/Creative Writing and Psychology. I am the oldest of four. I have two brothers, Lucas (20) and Brett (17), and a younger sister, Abigail (12).
For me, the CCSC came out of nowhere. I hadn't considered a year of service as an option, though I admired others who could give a year for this or other comparable organizations. I actually came upon the CCSC (or as it was still referred to back in the spring, the Diocesan Service Corps) as I was hunting on Monstertrak.com for job openings. I saw the CCSC page, thought it was a paying gig, and sent a resume only to find out later what acceptance into this program would mean. Number one on that list was the move from small Midwestern towns to Buffalo, NY…where they have public transportation and people don't go out on weekends until midnight!
I liked the idea, however, of stepping out of my comfort zone geographically, technologically, and spiritually, and I thought that there was no time like now to pack my things and go. I thought to myself, "If I didn't do this program now, I never will." I could do grad school some other year, perhaps after this program was over. In all actuality, I didn't know what I wanted a Master's for; it just seemed like the next step. Suddenly, the CCSC became an opportunity to form some clarity regarding my future.
Now that I'm here, I'm trying to push myself to get the full effect. I want to experience everything I can. Some things are harder than others: I don't mind not having a cell phone, I don't mind sharing in cooking and cleaning duty, and I don't mind having to walk more to get to and from work. What's been more of a challenge for me has been acknowledging my distress when I realize how much injustice there is in our own country, and how intermingled so many of these biases are so that it's hard to know which problem to detangle first. In one of my placement locations, the Harvest House: Baby and Children's Ministry, I get to immerse myself in working with a population with which I have had little personal interaction. The B&CM gives free baby and children's clothes and furnishings to marginalized two- or single-parent families who come referred by social workers because the parents cannot afford such things as onesies or booties for their newborns, or winter coats for their 8-year old. The Harvest House allows its clientele to visit twice a year when the seasons change (or once every three months for the newborns) to update their children's wardrobe and prepare them for upcoming weather. It's an amazing place to work, and the interaction with the clients is the kind of experience I was hoping for from this year.
I have also struggled with "speaking my truth," that is, saying what I need to before it weighs me down. I'm used to keeping things bottled up in an effort to avoid conflict. That is probably the biggest push I am giving myself.
And other things will come up as the year progresses; new gifts or abilities I didn't know I possessed, new ways to grow, new things to work on, new prospects for future professions and/or education routes. I'm trying not to anticipate too much right now. I'm just enjoying the experience, as well as enjoying meeting my fellow volunteers and learning who they are and what they are bringing to this year.