#jvcnation

In lieu of a blog post this week, here’s an article in the Washington Post about my community in D.C. Enjoy.

Secondly - both East Coast Orientation and Local Orientation here in D.C. were awesome. The conversations had, the individuals met, and the prayers prayed have totally confirmed for me that I am exactly where God wants me to be. Our house already feels like a home and on the day we arrived our neighborhood was having its annual block party, complete with dancing, BBQ, a bouncy house, face painting, and lots of mingling with the neighbors. It was such an awesome opportunity to jump right in to the community and start building relationships so soon. We danced in the middle of the street with our neighbors, young and old, temporarily able-bodied and not, and had an absolute blast. The experience of dancing with a group of people I didn’t know, in the middle of a city I’d never been to, outside of a house I had literally just moved into five minutes prior, is an experience I’ve found myself thinking about often over the last two weeks. I don’t know about anyone else, but I have very rarely - if ever - felt so totally in the right place, and I think that moment, more than any other, really sums up why. My placement with the Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth, perhaps unsurprisingly, is incredible: my colleagues are simultaneously open-hearted, patient with my learning curve, passionate, and ridiculously brilliant. Their conviction and dedication to justice has already inspired me and I’m sure will continue to do so. I couldn’t be more excited to see what this year has in store. As a final note, I’d like to take a moment and acknowledge that during my East Coast Orientation, the world lost an absolutely incredible advocate - Col. Donna Clark. She was a woman I had the incredible honor and privilege of meeting on several different occasions and she was so kind as to give me some (necessarily direct) advice about my own conviction to pursue justice with my life. Her own dedication to her country, her family, and the betterment of humanity as a whole is something I will always admire. She raised Shannon, one of the strongest and most powerful people I have the privilege of calling friend, a person who has truly enriched my life in a way that I would be lost without. I know it’s a tall order, but I hope my work over the next year manages to meet at least a few of her standards. I’m planning to post perhaps every other weekend, but we’ll see if that’s too ambitious. Thank you to all my family and friends who have been patient with my scatterbrained whirling.