This is the Story: The End.

So after 10 long months, days of shitty work, 9 people that may have drove me crazy on a regular basis (who weirdly I love dearly), I am officially done. My AmeriCorps year is complete, finito, over, dunzo. Have I fully processed this? According to everyone I probably haven't and won't for a few weeks but I believe I've been processing this for months.

What to say about AmeriCorps? It was sometimes hell; living, breathing hell. You have someone constantly controlling your daily life, planning your schedule, telling you when to sleep, eat, speak, work. Other times it was the most amazing experience in the world, I spent time with people I began to call my family. We fought, laughed, (some) cried. They were there to bring you up when you were down and set you on the right path. I met incredible individuals within this program, I truly believe many will do wonderful things with their lives and I do hope that I can stay a part of many of their futures in whatever way possible.

Do I understand the impact I have had? Well if you look at the "statistics" apparently it has been a lot. I know the reality, I know what I have accomplished, what this program has accomplished and I know what has been left behind.

Would I do it again? No, I would not. It was no where near the stress I dealt with for 10 months. It is also not something that I believe was truly challenging for a 23 year old college graduate.

There are things that without a doubt I would like to have changed about this year, but I also gained a lot of experiences that I never would have. I saw the East Coast, I traveled, I helped tornado victims, I built houses. At least for part of these 10 months I made an impact, but I do believe above anything else that there needs to be some changes to make this program effective and self sustaining.

All I know is I left different and with a lovely group of individuals who I call family. Good luck to you Class 17, the potential we have to change society is great see to it that you actually do this.