I’ve had the longest couple days. This year I’m a site leader for the Alternative Spring Break organization and will be leading a group of students from the University of Missouri to the Florida Keys in a few weeks. We’re helping out the Nature Conservancy and removing invasive plant species and all that good stuff (not to mention enjoying far brighter and warmer days than in Missouri).

Yesterday my group ran a fundraiser for the trip from 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. where we sold Starbucks coffee. Starbucks was nice enough to give us the coffee for free, so that was pretty sweet. Yet–less sweet–I ended up working the fundraiser for six hours since I had an open schedule and I’m one of the two site leaders. Still, the first three hours we were selling the coffee outside, where it’s absolutely freezing. Christ, that was rough. I was still shaking inside 20 minutes after we moved out of the cold.

All in all, it was a solid experience though. The best part was actually getting a chance to chat with different members of my group going. So far we’ve had plenty of weekly meetings but rarely any one-on-one moments where we can just talk. Since we’ll be around each other 24/7 before too long for a week, I think this comfort level’s pretty important.

No matter how cold it got, this image also bolstered me quite a bit: