Rumination Nation

I had one of the most fulfilling and meaningful conversations of my life today with my best friend from high school. Our lives have taken us to different places, but our core values couldn’t be closer.

After a long, rumination-filled weekend, I learned something about myself on this fine Monday. Or rather, remembered something I forgot some time ago. Doing what you love and making sure you are fully comfortable with your actions is the only way to truly be at peace. And being at peace with yourself is absolutely essential for others to be at peace with you.

I look forward to another year in the Peace Corps on my terms. I have at times taken a lot of flack for not entirely following certain social norms for people my age, and because of that I have at times buckled and abandoned some of the things that make me who I am - in order to fit in, or something like that. I feel like going into this any further would just be weird on a blog, so I’m done there. I guess I can just say I know the person I want to be, and I am tired of being less than that for the sake of appeasing some common ideal of what a moronic post-college twenty three year old guy should be. Okay yeah, probably too heavy but whatever. I guess that was a convoluted way of saying I have a mid-year (and mid-service) resolution that rocks pretty hard.

On a slightly different yet still related note, I might have the dream job (or something like it) I came here searching for by week’s end. I’ll keep you posted. A lot of my discontent since returning from Hawaii has been replaced with simmering anticipation for a conversation with Peace Corps this Thursday about what comes next, and the future looks quite bright.

~full steam ahead~

One year ago today I was sitting in a conference room in Miami with a bunch of strangers getting ready to travel to Jamaica. How time flies. As I approach this awesomest of awesome landmark, I certainly have mixed emotions about the whole thing. On the one hand, Peace Corps and my country supervisor are happy with the work I have done, and I could easily coast by doing the same for another year. On the other hand, it would probably be cynical and angry if I was to have to do everything I just did over again. I'm looking to the future -- full steam ahead -- in hopes that the work I do for this community and country become more fulfilling, and more worthwhile, for everyone involved. I'm meeting with some Red Cross people early next week - will keep you posted.

Last weekend I had my first all night 'Jamaican' party experience. It was ridiculous. It started at my house, and ended on a pier in Montego Bay as the sun rose over a nearby mountain range. Actually, it ended after I got back to my town a few hours later, post-a brown stew chicken, callaloo, dumpling breakfast at a the yellow bar (a personal favorite in town). Somewhere in the middle? Three bars and Pier One, a seriously legit dancehall. I was with three volunteers, and we were close to the only white people in a crowd about five hundred strong. Loud music, inappropriate dancing, and good times had by all. I won't ever do it again, but now I can check that one off the list.

This week has been relatively mellow. Laundry took up a day, and hammock time another. It's a nice day for a change - summer generally sucks - so I'm sitting on my patio anticipating the rapidly approaching sunset.

Who knows what the next year has to offer me. All I know is that if the last year is any indication, this next one will fly by. I hope when everything is said and done I, too, will feel happy with the work I have done here. I know I'll do everything I can to see that is the case.

~~~

I'll leave you with a picture from my recent trip home - this one is my cousin Lorin about to reach the peak of Konahuanui. Its my favorite hike on Oahu. I found this sweet book at the top - its a traveling log where the person who finds it is supposed to drop it off at somewhere else sweet they eventually end up. This one has been going since 2004 - it started in Connecticut and traveled across a continent and an ocean before ending up at the top of the Ko'olaus. I didn't have time for another hike before I left the state, so I gave the book to my dad to carry forward. Pretty cool idea ~ small world we live in.

(JD, WAJ, Ms. Miller... beat by a high schooler. No prosciutto this time though, so no big loss. And the top was cloudy. ugh.)

Near the summit of Konahuanui, the highest point on one of Oahu's two mountain ranges.

Honolulu spreads out below in the distance below the cloud line.

-TG

Graduation

My fifth-form students are graduating tomorrow, meaning I have successfully finished one year as a Guidance Department swing man at Holland High School. Word.

Back safely in Jamaica, getting ready for a long summer of not much to do.

Job related update:

Starting next year I will no longer be working on the parenting stuff some of you may know I have struggled with. My supervisor finally came around and is going to be bringing in trained professionals to deal with necessary parents. This means... I get to design and establish a project that will take about three days per week for the next year. Super stoked. Hopefully by the end of the summer I will be working with Jamaica Red Cross.

That's all for now~

It's about that time again when I should remind everyone of a standing invitation to come visit - do it! Its fun. I can give character references, if necessary.

-TG

At peace

In sitting down to write a more substantive blog post than normal, I suddenly find myself unable to do so. I thought about what I wanted to say for the last hour, and now can't find the words.

On the eve of traveling to Hawaii for the first time in a year, I find myself overloaded with the emotions I haven't been able to process for the last few days.

I am o.k., my family will be o.k., and life goes on.

I will be back in Jamaica in two weeks. Driving home from Kingston was my first chance to process anything since Wednesday, and everything is suddenly hitting me. That substance I planned to sit down and pour out will have to wait until I have had a moment to actually think about what has happened.

Though on that drive, I past a secluded field in the mountains as the sun began to set, and I watched ten Jamaican kids playing football. It was the first time in a long time that I felt, strangely, at home.

Another one bites the dust...

Hi all,

I know it has been forever since I last updated this thing - just take it to mean I'm doing good work and have been really busy.

The last month in six short points:

1. My agency and I secured a JM$250,000 grant - funding outreach work for about five years!

2. I got decent MCAT score results.

3. I have made serious progress with my peer education group. After months of struggle, I got them all together and pretty much said 'this is your group now', and it was all I needed to do. We are planning a beach cleanup nearby to raise environmental awareness at the school and in the community. The kids are stoked because they get a beach day, they get media coverage, and they get to skip school. I'm stoked because I have finally made a few breakthroughs with the kids. I am in the youth sector after all, so this feels particularly good. We held a bake sale last friday and made about JM$5,000 - good enough for lunch for about 60 people if we do it properly, in addition to materials to make signs and buy trash bags, etc. More details as they arise~

4. Sad to say the troops are dwindling. Peace Corps Jamaica Group 79, once a strong 52, now stands at 33. Just over 60% of the starting group remains, and I have feelings we haven't seen the end of it. Four of my close friends have left in the last week, and it definitely sucks. The island will be a tad quieter for the next year it seems like! Good news though in the impending return of a close friend of mine, one Ms. Shanna Maloney, PCV, my partner in crime in the Trelawny Guidance Department system. Looking forward to it!

5. Only a few weeks left in the school year! Coming this summer I will be spending all my time working to establish a worthwhile secondary project, something I hope will keep me extra busy through this time next year.

6. My med school application is almost done. I will be applying early decision to the University of Hawaii, and am hoping for good things. If I don't get in, I am looking at post-bac and MPH alternatives.

That's about it - quick update but to the point. Send good vibes! I think rainy season is bringing Eeyore-like vibes for a lot of people. I'm doing great though, but I don't want to be all alone this time next year!

-TG

Backontherock :)

New York was an amazing, amazing time.

I have the BEST and most amazing friends and family. Except Will, that guy's a douche. Things started out rather interestingly, as I arrived in JFK to find that an 18-year old bottle of Jamaican rum had broken in my bag during transit. Smelled nice, but quite unfortunate. That mishap was counteracted by the generosity of the woman I sat next to on the plane from Montego Bay. She is a resident of the upper west and paid for my cab from JFK to 110/Broadway. Gotta love the bubble.

I arrived in NYC with three goals:

1. Do well on MCAT

2. Chill with friends

3. Eat good food.

The following is a day-to-day on my doings. I place weight on food, because that was 99% of what I thought about.

Monday: Milano Market take out with Brother / Reunion with the W 108 crew.

Tuesday: Yale Club Dinner with Father / Squash extravaganza

Wednesday: Sake Bar Hagi (yum) with Jennifer.Sit

Thursday: Biryani Cart (seriously, ridic.) on a solo lunch promenade in Midtown

Thursday: Korean BBQ courtesy of Joseph K. Song. Absolutely amazing Beef Brisket / Spicy Pork / Kalbi. I cannot express how much I dug this meal.

Friday: Yale Club (revisited) with Father, Brother, and Eleina. Lots of crab legs and asparagus.

Saturday: MCAT.

Later Saturday: Legit lamb shank. Sunny Haft. Zoe Fonseca. Poetry bar (For whom the bell tolls...). Ginger Man. Potato Chips. Some random diner at 5 AM. Jenn: A-game performance.

Sunday: Recovery. At least 18 hours of sleep logged in the books.

Monday: Williamstown, MA / Kopy chill time.

Tuesday: Choice Eats with Bill and Jenn. How is unlimited free food/wine/beer/liquor only $35? Honestly. Great deal. Good thing too, because of the $$$$ to be dropped the next day.

Wednesday: Chelsea Market Lunch with Weiler. Grape gelato = yum.

Wednesday: PDT, Momofuku Ko, Artichoke.

(Tuesday/Wednesday = Best 48 hours of food when? Oh, ever.)

Thursday: Roti Roll with Gregory Valentino Puppione. Chill time. I got sick.

Friday: MSTRKRFT. Bounce Low... Bounce High... A bar tab far too large to talk about.

Saturday: Celebration of Jenn's birth. Krik Krak Haitian. I remember this being fun.

Sunday: Central Park Promenade with Joe/Polo/Jenn. Levain Bakery cookies = yum.

Sunday: The Mill Korean with Brother. Sushi and goodbyes.

Monday: Flight delayed. Arrive home late.

Additionally, I beat my brother at his NBA video game (progress?), ate Chipotle/Pinkberry, and gained 9 pounds (mission 3 accomplished).

I also got some kimchi/nori/shin ramyun back to Jamaica without it ruining all my clothes. Awesome.

Special props to Jenn/Joe for hosting me for a few days and everything that goes along with it, and extra special props to Jenn for compiling what I will always remember as one of the best food-related agendas of all time. Super props to Polo for finally helping me find a guitar!

Thanks to all who made my two weeks in the States awesome! Sadly there are a few of you who I never got to see, and hopefully next time around we can work something out.

Much love,

Tommy

In one week..

NYC.

That is all.

Final push on MCAT studying - I would update you more but that really has been my whole life for the past month or so.

Let's do this,

TG