prelude

i know i know, i need to write about key west. but a lot of people don't seem to understand why i just up and moved to key west so i felt as though an explanation would be good for everyone.

 in october i started to hate my job at the treatment center. this was hard for me in so many ways. i have wanted to work with teens since i was a teen and for the first 8 months i really loved it. and i loved the teens i worked with. then things started to change and i started to lose faith and respect for the company i was working for. i tried to stick it out but things kept getting worse. to the point that i was having anxiety attacks that were making me physically ill.

so in september/october of 2011 i decided to take a chance. i contacted a company called camp adventure and applied for an internship. after numerous interviews and mountains of paperwork i landed the internship and was told i'd be moving to germany in january.

then i did A LOT of waiting. let me tell you, it was REALLY hard to not just quit my job right then and there but i powered through until december. (it wasn't pretty). my only regret in quitting is that i did not get to say goodbye to the girls i worked with and that about killed me.

thats when i got an email saying i would not be going to germany but would be spending four months in alaska instead. i almost crapped my pants. did i really just quit my secure job for an unpaid internship in freezing, desolate alaska? luckily they were able to work with me and i was placed in key west. it wasn't europe so i was a little dissapointed but i was leaving utah for a beautiful island so i didn't feel any need to coplain

what is Camp Adventure? well basically its an excuse to play with fun kids, travel and get graduate credit while doing it. they paid for my flights and provided housing and a living stipend (and when i say living stipend, i mean just enough money to get by on). in exchange, i get to work in the child development centers (CDC's) on different millitary instillations all over the world.

sometimes i feel a little bit crazy for doing it, especially now when i have a car i can't sell and a car payment i can't afford but it was totally worth it. and don't worry i'll tell you why.