Family and *Vista

This post touches on a somewhat sensitive subject for me. My family and their opinion of my year of service. Now, don't get me wrong my family is supportive. And my parents/little sister are amazing and back me up in every way. It's the extended part of my family that I feel misunderstands some of my reasons and explanations for my service.

Now, my family is always there for me. I come from a tight knit Southern family. But they don't really seem to understand my decisions. They are more conservative in their thinking and sometimes I find it really difficult. The other day I was trying to explain the Ohio Benefit Bank and how it can really help Ohioans as a whole. I explained how it returns unclaimed federal dollars to the local economy and how this could really benefit people from all economic backgrounds. But it seemed to fall on deaf ears. Nobody outright told me they disagreed but simply shifted uncomfortably in their chairs and didn't say much at all. That's not easy to take!

It's the feeling that nobody really gets what I'm doing that starts to bother me. They don't understand why I spent all that money on a small liberal arts college. Especially now that I'm not really making any money as a *Vista. But I see things differently. I see this as a chance to do something I am passionate about and build my skills so I can better serve the community. I feel that even in the past month I have expanded my skill set and know more resources for fighting poverty. Sometimes it's just hard knowing that the people who should know you the best, don't really appreciate everything that you do.

This actually leads me into a story about something that happened to me a few weeks ago that I will post for people just to think about. It revolves around the same misconceptions about *Vista service. I was out with a few of my old friends from a few summers back when we ran into a guy one of my friends knew. It turned out that he was serving in the Army. He was telling us some interesting stories and he was a really nice guy. He decided to leave and as he left one of the girls I was with said "Thank you for your service to our country!". At the time I thought nothing of it. But found out later that he in fact hated being a solider and regretted his decision. I thought to myself, isn't it ironic that she praised someone who hated his service and barely acknowledged my service to America as a *Vista. It's just interesting how people view service to our country based on their own values.