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At this blog’s inception I pretty much figured I would slack off to the point of no return–only a few faithful fans clamoring for new posts and updates from my California life. Well, that has pretty much become a reality at this point considering my pretty established social scene and teen clinic work dominating my life. Despite that, I still want to do a post once in awhile. It’s a fun reflective process for me and hopefully mildly entertaining/informative for my lovely family members who take the five minutes to read through it. Anyway, a lot has changed since my last post. I have an official boyfriend Nick (oh yay!). He’s staring (glaring?) at me across the table right now since I told him I’m in the process of updating my entire family about our relationship status. He’s pretty cool; I’m hoping he’ll stick around for awhile and continue to make my life more interesting than it was before.Teen Clinic is going great. All of you who are facebook inclined can check out our sweet MCC Teen Clinic fan page. I’m pretty proud of it. 82 fans and some awesome photos and information to boot. After spending a weekend in San Francisco at the Sex Tech conference I officially solidified what I already knew about teens and technology–if it’s not digitally expressed to them in one or another they’re probably going to care less.
But yeah, I’m still giving teens rides to the clinic for birth control appointments and I’m still teaching classes (although at decreased rate due to some administrators overreaction to a handout during one of my lessons at Fort Bragg High School) but everything overall is good. Basically I’m doing a lot of promotion and running of the Teen Clinic. Kids are showing up at a slow but steady rate. Considering our program has just gotten off the ground a few months ago everyone is really happy about how things are going. In general we have had over 30 teen patient visits since January. These are students who have texted me for appointments and have been brought into the clinic primarily through my outreach in the classroom, at health fairs, and other events. Some kids were patients at the Teen Clinic and then referred their friends to come after seeing how easy/cool it was. I’m just glad we are becoming an established resource for young people in the community. A common thing to hear from the kids I help is, “I couldn’t have done this without you,” or “If it wasn’t for you I wouldn’t have known what to do.” These are the type of comments that have motivated me to stay another year here in Fort Bragg. It’s crazy being so far away from home but what I’m doing is giving me really good experience and is actually helping people. I get a break in August though so my plan is to come home and visit for a good amount of time then. Definitely can’t wait for that.
Here are some photos of random stuff I have been up to. Enjoy!
Words cant express how proud I am of you. What
you doing for these girls! The impact is huge.
Happy for you that you found a new guy. More
later on him? Love, Aunt Margie
Thanks, Aunt Margie. I could do a spolight on Nick blog post for everyone… Haha. I think he would kill me. We’ll see. A webcam interview perhaps?
Wow. I didn’t know you provided transportation. That is above and beyond. Hopefully when you leave, your policies will stay in place. You are doing the hard part..implenting a program. Yes, I know my way of learning is so different, even for people in the 30′s. They need to be Wow’ed and all I do is “make em fall asleep”. Keep it up! Miss you!
Keep up the good work, Katie. You are making a difference. Don’t neglect your updates.
Grandpa
KT,
so inspired by you! Hope I can make a tenth of the impact you’re making when I start my Americorpship in Virginia. Way to go!
e
Awww, thanks Erin! What AmeriCorps job did you get??
Good blog, but a little more dirt on what’s happening outside of your job would be appreciated!
Ellen, what happens in Ft. Bragg, stays in Ft. Bragg. Right, Katie!
ha! you wish! Did you not see our picturesque trip to point arena? Describing what goes on in my crazy social life is too complicated for the entire internet world to see.
pics were gnarly. id like to see a good picture of nick. (your alter ego when you were little, member?). sounds like youve settled in and are making waves…surfing and otherwise. call me this weekend to see if you made any progress on the other thing. love and miss you lots!
If only more than 60 people could hear about this.
If only I had a quarter for every time I came to californiakt.wordpress.com! Amazing post.