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Another Oklahoma Sunset
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I apologize for the picture I put up in my last post. I was new in the area, and didn’t have a good photo to share, so I put up what I had. Looking back at it now after being here a month and taking more pictures of the neighborhood, I see now how poor a photo it was. I felt that way a bit when I was uploading it, but I figured it was that or nothing. I hope the image up for this post looks better. It’s a photo of the same horizon, taken at much the same spot, but this time I set the camera down on something stable, and took a photo while some clouds were in the sky. I think the quality is better because of it.

It’s been a month since my last post, meaning that I’ve now spent over a month in Oklahoma. Things are going well: I’ve made many new friends, tasted new food, and biked or walked longer than I ever have before. I’m used to how things work now, and I’ve gotten into a pattern that makes me feel at ease.

While I have been given the label “Web Content Volunteer”, it was with the understanding that the Web department probably wouldn’t have enough work for me to do solely Internet-related work. Because of that, I’ve met people on all four floors of the building, and have helped in areas outside of the Web. I’ve been able to help take photos for the Internet and the newsletter, of which I am very excited to see published.

Some of the work I’ve done has made it out to the Web, including the YouTube profile [youtube.com] and the MySpace profile [myspace.com]. There’s one project that I oversaw from nearly the start to the finish, but it’s not being advertised on the site yet, so I’ll wait to post it here.

I’ve taken some photos for the newsletter, as well, and they should be showing up in the Special Issue that’s coming in the next few months. While I won’t be credited, being able to point out a photo and say “I took that” to anyone and everyone I meet will be fun for me. I’m excited about it, because the Special Issue has a large print run, and readership is at its highest. Sure, the photos aren’t the exciting ones that everyone will remember, but I’ll be published, so it’s an accomplishment, and I’m proud of it.

One thing that I hoped this trip was going to do for me was to help me grow in the Lord and in my maturity. I’ve tried to put myself in situations that challenge me, so that I could learn to be more motivated and less socially awkward. I’ve survived standing in front of most of the staff during a meeting and prayed for a country (it’s something we do once a week), going to several parties, and talking to a bunch of people in the office. I hope to make myself uncomfortable again in the future, so that I can learn from the experience and handle the stress better the next time. Being shy isn’t fun, but being able to handle situations I felt too uncomfortable to try in the past is quite pleasant.

Work is keeping me busy, and my social life has definitely gotten more social, so I’ve had very few days in this month that I’ve felt anything nearing boredom. When I’m busy, I’m having fun, and when I’m relaxing, I have plenty of things to keep me occupied. Saturdays are my “shopping days”, where I go on my bike and take a six- to seven-mile round trip to the various stores in the area. It’s gotten easier over the weeks to bike that distance, and I hope that it helps me lose weight.

I hope to begin posting more often. Getting used to having a busier personal life has come at the expense of having free time, but I’m getting better at organizing everything.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 20th, 2008 at 9:47 pm and is filed under Life. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.