I don’t know what to write. When it comes to these blog posts, I usually always have something I want to say. But there are six days left in January, and I’m holding myself to this high standard that not only must I complete my January blog post in January, but that it must be something worth reading. I think I always hold myself to this ridiculously high standard, because that's how I was raised. In my family, we were always meant to exceed the expectations of others, and it's something I still do even though I am an independent adult. There is, to my knowledge, no penalty for not doing a blog post, but I still do each one. Our genogram paper, a 10-15 page single-spaced discussion on and analysis of our families, is due Monday and is not graded, but I'm still treating it like it's a final paper in one of my college English classes. I think I speak for all of the Fellows when I say we are emotionally worn out from reliving and/or coming to terms with the more difficult aspects of our families, and none of us wants to write a blog post when we've got 10-15 single-spaced pages to worry about. I very well may be the only one who writes one for January. So, to update anyone who reads these, here is what the Fellows have been up to in January:
Seven-ish of us (we lost Hayes but gained Dan) reunited at Elaina’s house in Richmond on New Year’s Eve, and celebrated the New Year together.
We went on our mid-year retreat to Fancy Gap, VA, where the pipes were frozen and we had no running water. There was a lot of bonding and a lot of trips to the nearest grocery store. I actually kind of enjoyed it.
We celebrated the life of Ray Seigler, to whom we owe the formation of the Raleigh Fellows Program. We also hosted the Knoxville Fellows, who journeyed to Raleigh for Ray’s funeral, and enjoyed a meal and a dance party with them. They’re pretty cool people.
We got two days off of work thanks to snow and ice, and most of us enjoyed sledding, snowball fights, some quality time with Ashley and Sam at their house.
Dan and Dalton turned 23!!
We still love each other and we still love this program.
~Calley