The first day I walked onto the territory of the CityLink campus, I was uncertain about such a mystic step in my life.
I walked through the doors and saw a vivid wall of blue. "Welcome," it said in silver lettering at the top. Behind the desk were several people staring at me. One of the (former) VISTAs immediately got up and came out of the side door to greet me.
I figured that today-- my last day as an AmeriCorps VISTA-- I had to write about all sorts of things, but more importantly, about the beginning and about the end.
I wasn't as emotional as I thought I would be. The timing was off. An overwhelming percentage of our staff had left on vacation yesterday for the Thanksgiving holiday. Obviously, volunteers are less likely to come in during the holiday season as well. I know all this hasn't settled in yet because I process things slowly, but I have to tell you about one of the most cliche things that happened as I took my last step out of the building.
Just like one of those moments when a flash of images appear before your eyes, the last person I said goodbye to was the individual who had started this journey with me from day one. And when I say day one, I literally mean that we had an eerily-fated first meeting the night I randomly chose to sit at her table out of 300 AmeriCorps VISTAs in Chicago at our Pre-Service Orientation. Amongst the 300, only three people were serving in Cincinnati, including myself. And I happened to sit next one of them-- the same girl whom I had bid my last farewell to today.
We came in as a group of four last December. One girl left her service after eight months, the other is staying for one more year, and she and I-- my fated partner-- are the only ones finishing and moving on.
After one year of serving at CityLink Center (which, if anyone had cared to notice, I had never mentioned my organization's name in the past year for specific reasons), this girl was the only person who could understand with most precision how difficult and rewarding this journey has been.
It was the perfect setting. I had said goodbye to all the other VISTAs, said my last farewells to volunteers, and there she was, waiting for me below the Welcome sign.
