So I have a new job.... I work at Westridge Academy (formerly known as Utah Boys Ranch). I work on the girls side. It has been around only 3 or 4 years tops, whereas the boys has been around for almost 40 years! It is the perfect job. I am a livein counselor. I have my own apartment attached to the home. There are three homes on girls side. Boys side has eight homes. Not all the homes are open with kids in them though. Our numbers are down right now. It is a great job. I wake up the girls at 6:30am and I leave them after breakfast at 8am. SO in the fall I can go to school right after. Then I just get to be back to work at 6pm till 10pm. It has its ups and downs but it is great. My bosses (Jeff and Jay) have told me recently that they prayed strongly over the decision of who to hire and they felt very impressed to hire me. I hope I can live up to their expectations.
Some weeks are good some are rough. Some days are amazing and some days I just want to curl up and go back to bed. But truly, isn't every job that way? At least I am helping girls get on the right track. *cross your fingers* I love these girls. They are all so unique and really bring something to this campus. Even the ones who drive me nuts a majority of the time. Anywho, we had a Gala fundraiser in the month of April. The girls and boys dressed up in vests, bow ties, white shirts and black pants to be servers to the guests. I got to help supervise. I wasn't able to get a picture of the girls. They all changed before I could. They all hated how they looked, lol. They were all super professional and did an amazing job! I felt so proud. Especially of H.
Here are some pics of the girls. One is of StS and me. She is shorter than me so she asked me to squat down. And she is even on her toes haha.
I love the boys. They are all my little brothers. Any chance I get to work on the boys side is a treat, well, kinda. They aren't perfect for sure, but they are straight up usually. It's a bigger campus too so there seems to be a lot going on. Dave and Justin (2 live-ins on boys side that I hang with. First is H home, latter is J home) had a water fight between their homes. I wish I could've been there. Although I have already been soaked by a staff over there and he will receive his dues. All the staff are like brothers too. So back to the Gala, lol, there are pics of some of the boys too.
For the Gala I volunteered to create the display to represent the homes. Linda Stone (Pond Parent) and Dave (H live-in) helped me out. Here's the pics of it. Jeff and Jay were super impressed by it. Jeff took us out to lunch as a reward. I like Jeff, he's a good guy. Very friendly and fun to joke with. He has it together. He is over boys and girls campuses but is foremost a therapist. Jay is Night security supervisor and over girls side. I wish I had pics of them :P
I know this is where I need to be right now. Even though my wanderlust eye is always scanning the horizon for new paths, I will stay here for at least a year, hopefully more. Not long enough to get stuck in Utah but long enough to graduate from the U-??? and also to create some stability in Sage home. and the campus. I replaced a live-in 3 months ago today (well yesterday now, haha). Then our Sage home live-out (Crystal) left a week ago and Pond live-in (Mandy) had her last day yesterday. Kim, new Sage home live-out, is not new to the campus, just new to the position. She has been here 3 years and held all sorts of positions. Our new live-in, Megan, worked in a another stricter program. She has worked two days only so far, but seems great. So there are just a lot of changes right now. I better be careful not to get burnt out by working so much (my normal position plus night security, boys side, and rec trips). I want to go on rec trips though because my major is rec therapy. In fact I have pics of the a camping trip that was 3 or 4 days long. I was only there for the last day and a half. I will get pics up asap. Well that's all for now folks. Ya happy Christina????!!!! :PPP
