Planning The Rescue

Planning The Rescue:STL wasn't really as big a chore in and of itself. But pair that with my 18-hour courseload, my full-time job that required me to travel on weekends, nearly every weekend, and my responsibilities as president of the Invisible Children United club, it got to be a lot very quickly. Furthermore, we were heading up another book drive this semester and I literally could not find the time to get it all done. I handed off that task to Brandon Schatsiek and Brittany Heenan--both wonderful people who have helped me so, so much and without whom I'd probably have lost a lot of faith and enthusiasm for this entire ordeal.

I don't remember my first call from Daniel Trigg after I'd been deemed a "street team leader," only that it took place in my dorm room and it was not as productive as I'd expected. We discussed what would be needed for The Rescue and what he was going to be emailing me. That was how a lot of our conversations went.

[me looking at my phone seeing Middle America pop up as the incoming caller]
>>Hello!
>>Hey Becky it's Daniel Trigg from Invisible Children.
[yes, I know]
>>Hey Daniel, how's it going?
>>Not bad, how are you?
>>[long-winded explanation about my day/week] ...So what did you call for?
>>I wanted to check in with you about The Rescue
>>[detailed account of what I'd been up to as far as planning]
>>That sounds great. I'm going to email you [insert new official document here]
>>Awesome. Hey I had a question...

And that's more or less how our conversations went nearly every time. He never said much, but I always seemed to get the information I needed.

I realize now that a lot of what I was asking of him was way too much. I wish I'd known how unprepared Trigg was before I went about assuming he was the authority on the entire matter. Obviously he should have been the authority and so that was not an ungrounded assumption to make. Unfortunately it was simply the wrong assumption. The poor interns were literally thrown into a phase of planning for which they knew nothing and had less to go off of. Each coordinating six or so cities: acquiring permits, establishing team leaders, etc. That is what I needed to know from The Rescue: House Party video. I needed to know how much power I was truly wielding. Apparently it was a lot.

After the House Party on March 25, I stuck around St. Louis trying to get as much done as possible. Saturday morning of that week, I jumped in Eron and drove down to the Arch grounds myself. I don't believe I'd seen them in about 7 years and had no more to go off of than the map I'd downloaded off the internet and spent an afternoon coloring on my dorm room floor to de-stress. I carried Berlioz with me and filmed the entire area--the Arch, the steps, the grass, and even looked for outlets in which to plug things--as well as priced parking. The $6 parking at the Arch itself was not necessarily the cheapest, but certainly the safest.

I went home that night and loaded everything up to my computer before splicing it together as a video and emailing it on to Dan and to Daniel. The problem with this was not that I'd given Daniel a clear idea of where we were staying, but rather that my idea of where we were staying did NOT coincide with his idea of where we were staying. Regardless, I made it back to Columbia having at least seen the Arch grounds and feeling more and more excited about the whole thing, but nervous about fitting it all in.

Atop my hectic daily schedule, I also factored in acquiring Rescue items...from two hours away. For this, I have to dedicate a small portion of my epitaph to the wonderful Lindy Bateman. Not only did she and Sarah Schulte and Zac Mueller gather everything for me, they were able to do it all in a timely fashion and ask for more to do! I love people like that.

So began the wonderful excel spreadsheets. I had one for everything.

• one for all the items I'd collected
• one for all the items I'd left to collect
• one for all the items I'd been promised but had not yet received confirmation on
• one for all my volunteers and their contact information
• one for all the volunteer positions that needed to be filled and who was filling them
• one for News stations and their contact information
• one for the people from Mizzou, Truman, Stevens, and SEMO attending and their carpool situation
• one for my "To Do" list, which included separately things to do in Columbia and things to do in St. Louis and things to do at The Rescue itself

Throughout this time I was emailing and calling people from around the Missouri area trying to see how everything was coming on their end, looking for help if I needed it and offering help where I could give it.

I distinctly remember two straight weeks of, for lack of a better term, pure living hell. Without my planner on me right now I can't describe which ones they were exactly, but dear lord were they awful. Up at 7 every morning and back to the room around 8 or 9pm and later to bed around 3 or 4am. I had exams in everything, at least one major paper due, and a project I was working on. I was out of town both weekends. I missed 3 days of class for work. I had office hours where the only thing I could do was sit on the phone and on my computer organizing everything I had.

There is nothing more frustrating than not being able to get things done yourself. I would have loved to have been able to collect all the items myself, to get dressed up and march straight into the police headquarters to talk things over, to walk around the Arch grounds and mentally map everything out. Unfortunately, I couldn't do that. Therefore I seethed in my office from 2 hours away, accomplishing little, but not for lack of trying.

On one such bored day I was doodling on graph paper and found that I could plan out the signs needed for The Rescue. These I hurriedly transferred to digital copies and then emailed them to Cassie Herrington, Annie Bastida, and Dan Parris. They gave me positive feedback, so I forwarded them on to Trigg and to Lindy (who passed them along to Zac, my wonderful talented artist).

I'm still impressed with how they turned out. Partly because I designed them, and I'm not a designer. Mostly because Zac did a truly fantastic job. He asked me lots of questions in the process to make sure he got the banners just right. It's times like that where I wish I had known that Trigg was not given much direction in this process. Zac was asking me about canvas material and dimensions and potential circumstances for the banners. Ultimately I threw down some numbers and let him run with them. I don't know how much it mattered in the end, thankfully.

Another bored day in the office, I sat down with my manila folder and spread its contents out. I was on the phone for a solid hour with 3 or 4 different people asking small favors of them or large requests that I could but pray would be fulfilled. I reported everything dutifully to Trigg and asked if there was more I could do. All the while, Kevin from Add9 sat two chairs away from me and listened while he attempted to study his sheet music (Add9 is an a cappella troupe). My favorite comment from him was after I'd hung up my now-dying phone.

>>You going to St. Louis?
>>Yeah at the end of April. My entire organization is going.
>>Oh that's cool. Add9 is going to [location]. What were you talking about? Do you have stuff planned in St. Louis while you're there?
>>Yeah, I'm in charge of one sector of our international event and it's being held in St. Louis.
>>Nice. Sounds like you're busy.
>>You have no idea.
>>At least you're not planning it. Then you'd be really busy.
[blink]
>>No, I'm planning it. I haven't eaten in 2 days and I have 2 exams and a paper due tomorrow. Believe me. I'm really busy.

I was so excited for this event; I can't even put it into words. At the same time, however, I was so frustrated. It was difficult to get a hold of Dan because of his own work, which I understand. Talking with him was great, though, because I could direct him wherever I needed him to go and if he was capable, he would get it done for me. Getting a hold of Cassie, on the other hand, was all but impossible. In the weeks leading up to The Rescue itself, I heard from Cassie only twice. Twice. And she was supposed to be one of the three people leading this?

She's a lovely girl, no denying it. I loved getting to work with her that night in St. Louis. However, I would not try and put her in charge of a major event. She seemed not to realize the scale of the entire ordeal. Truth be told, I didn't either, but I knew Invisible Children was asking the impossible of me and that I had to pull through because Invisible Children makes a business of achieving the impossible.

The House Party was over spring break, so I used that time to try and get together what I could, which at the time was not much. Two weeks later I found myself back at home for Easter. That was a huge help to be in town that weekend. Cassie went home to Kentucky for the weekend, so I completely missed her, but Dan was in town and I got to meet up with him and his fabulous girlfriend Kristen Huyett.

That was a fateful trip to downtown Kirkwood. Not only did I realize that I was actually the one person (moreso than Trigg) in charge of the entire event, I also met Kristen--the greatest person to have come my way at that point. She was fantastically connected and politically driven. She was outgoing and friendly and overjoyed to be working with Invisible Children. I am so blessed to have 'found' her. Thank you, Dan Parris.

That one weekend alone I was able to gather nearly all the rest of my supplies and found a band of volunteers that Kristen would supply. I could kiss the ground she walks on. Seriously.

I remember the last couple of weeks leading up to The Rescue. Two or three straight weeks of me carrying around my folders everywhere. Every spare moment (at meals, before and after classes, during classes, before bed, in between homework sets) I spent pouring over those pages, double- and triple-checking everything I'd accomplished and mentally trying to work out a way to get everything else done in time. Who did I know? Where would be a good place to find X? If I were living on the streets and needed X I would...

Before long, my friends stopped seeing me. I was forever working on The Rescue. I know, except for maybe Meredith and I doubt even then, that they had no idea the scale of this project. It's nice that I was so involved with an organization, they thought. It's cool that I got to "help out." They didn't understand and I truly didn't have the time to explain it to them.

[Also Unrelated]

So I just got really nervous again about this Roadie position. People keep telling me I don't need to be--which doesn't help, by the way. I have just as much reason to be nervous as everybody else. Everyone except Melissa Carter, that is, who has already heard that she's been accepted.

I've wanted this position for four years now. FOUR YEARS. And I've tried working alongside the IC staff that entire time, but it's not the same. I'd rather be included as part of that staff.

Have they not tried contacting me because I'm abroad? If so, then I have no reason to be freaking out. I don't go back for another week and a half. Surely by the time I'm home, they'll have an answer for me.

Have they tried emailing me and it got lost in a junk mail folder? Also a possibility, but I'm inclined to doubt it--if only for the simple fact that I really don't want to search through my junk mail.

Invisible Children, Tiffany and Sabrina specifically, please let me know soon? Even thousands of miles away with whirlwind tours of European cities I can't be torn away from the hope of being a Roadie in the fall.

Sincerely,
On the edge of my seat in Brussels

[Exclamation!]

Obviously this doesn't quite relate to my previous blog posts, but since I'm in Europe this summer, I felt it necessary for the three people reading this to know that I'll probably be updating my other blog more frequently. Feel free to check it out!

March 25, 2009: The House Party

March was already crazy. The screening was during the last week of classes before Spring break 2009, and I'd be heading back to St. Louis for the second time since January. I went home way too often this year. More often than I'd ever planned on going home. Probably because Taylor went home so often and it was just convenient. Plus, I'm not a partier, so Mizzou doesn't hold a lot of interest for me on weekends.

Wednesday March 18th was difficult for me to concentrate on much of anything because I truly did feel as if my family had left me. It's absolutely unbelievable how close I feel to almost anyone involved with Invisible Children, but it's true nonetheless. We are fully and completely family by a bond none of us understands.

The remainder of the week was fairly uneventful, except for taking (and passing) my film class midterm on Thursday and learning an exam question during my Friday morning biology class since only 40 or so were present. Our reward for coming to class.

That weekend, the three possible trips I had planned never came to fruition. San Diego was too expensive. Cape Girardo/SEMO was "impossible" since that was a far drive for a roadtrip [see Rescue Riding post later] and Alyssa was in Florida anyway. Texas simply never happened. Instead, my family took a weekend trip to Arkansas and arrived back home on Monday night.


I had begun working on The Rescue by this point and was looking for some dedicated volunteers. I was put in contact with Lindy Bateman--a Mizzou student who was taking a semester at home and taking classes at St. Charles Community College, or something of the sort. Turns out she is friends with Melanie Barnes, a Nerinx graduate who was also on my field hockey team. Lindy and her friend Sarah Schulte were planning a House Party screening at a coffee shop in old town St. Charles, right on Main Street. Since no one was coming to my house for the house party screening, I gladly drove out to one of the cutest streets in St. Charles.

March 25th dawned bright and early for me. I had stayed up to see the release of The Rescue podcast (which I would be seeing later at the House Party anyway). It didn't come out on time, in true IC fashion. I love this organization, but time is not exactly their priority always. Regardless, around 3am I fell asleep and awoke at 7:00 to watch the now-uploaded podcast. The revamped Rescue site looked fantastic! The Rescue video was stirring to say the least and I was fired up, and ready for The Rescue event now!

But I had problems with the video. I still didn't know what it meant to "abduct ourselves." I still had no idea what participating in The Rescue would mean. I didn't know how structured an event this was going to be. I had no clue whether or not I would have help, since I certainly did not think I could do this on my own. Looking back on the event now, I could have run it on my own, but it would not have been a fraction of the success story it was. Most importantly, the video did not tell me anything I didn't already know. I felt slightly deceived by it.



For weeks it had been advertised as the video to answer all of our Rescue questions. As someone planning the event, I was wholly unsatisfied. That didn't sink in until later, though, so I went about my day as usual.

The House Party event was at 7 that night. Laura Thal showed up to my house around 6:15 so we could drive out to St. Charles together. She came early, so we found a place to park off Main Street (more difficult than it sounds) and then went to get her some dinner. She'd just gotten off work or back from Hebrew School--can't remember which.

With McDonalds in hand, Laura and I returned to Picasso's Coffee House and went inside to a bunch of strangers. We set up camp at a small table along the wall, clearly not in view of the screen and projector. Stupid. I ordered some of the most delicious coffee ever and the barrista even made a little heart out of the foam on top! Totally worth the outrageous price I paid just for that.

Well after 7 Sarah Schulte, quite possibly one of the cutest girls you'll ever meet, stood up in front of the group and called them all over to the upper area of the coffee house so we could all watch the House Party podcast. She explained a bit about Invisible Children and maybe even about The Rescue, but at that point, no one knew much of anything about the event. Not even me. I was getting my coffee at this point, so I didn't get to sit with the crowd, but I had already seen it and wasn't that disappointed, really.

Everyone was captivated. I think that's the best part of being a screener, rather than the one watching the screened film. Watching people's reactions is so rewarding.


After the film had ended, I went over and introduced myself to Sarah and to Lindy Bateman. I'd been in contact with both of them for a few days if not a few weeks, but had never met either. I also got to meet Sarah's sister, who had recently been registered as a First Responder and was so excited about it! Very cute, I'll admit. She volunteered to be part of the first aid committee at The Rescue. Check!

I owe so much to those two girls. While I was in Columbia trying to organize the volunteers and hte item acquisition, they were in St. Louis actually pulling it all together for me. I wish I could thank them more than I already have, but I don't know how, really. Hang out time soon?

We talked about St. Louis police and how I had yet to find an "in" downtown in the SLPD. They promised to keep their eyes and ears open for any mention of friends or family members that worked in the downtown police force. They never found any, but I guarantee it wouldn't have helped any. Turns out I'm related to a police Lieutenant, and that did very little for me. Stupid corruption. More on that to come.

Laura and I drove back to my house, discussing my disappointment with the film and her general interest in the cause and the moviemaking and The Rescue. I was happy with the turnout at the House Party--I'd only expected maybe 10 people there! And this was the beginning of the biggest chapter of the semester...

February/Early March

Back when I was only planning a GO screening on the Mizzou campus, I had Andre Chunaco on the phone just getting to know one another long-distance. I've come to the conclusion that this rarely works, as well as everyone would like to think it does. I learned more about Andre within the first few minutes of meeting him than I did in the entire 20 minutes I was on the phone with him.

Regardless, he tried to catch me up on the IC happenings (most of which I already knew about thanks to my obsession with checking the two blogs daily). I mentioned the international event in April and how it was recently entitled The Rescue, hoping to pull more information out of him. While he didn't have anything else to tell me, he did seem surprised that I already knew what the name of the event was, considering he'd only just found out about it himself.

In early February the IC staff got to see the rough cut of The Rescue documentary. Lauren Bazan felt compelled to inform Shawn and me that it would blow our minds but that she wouldn't say anything more. Needless to say, I was itching with anticipation, and I still had a full two months almost before I would get to see any part of it.

Not long after, I received a message from Lauren telling me that a guy named Dan Parris would be friending me soon. He would be in charge of planning the event with me. Little did I know, that would fall through somewhat later on. I love Dan to death, but this turned out to be my event alone in the end...

That same day she sent out a link to the Official Facebook page for the Saint Louis Rescue event. She sent it to me, Cassie Herrington, John Gallagher, and Mike Drackert asking if we would attend. In hindsight, this is quite funny. Cassie was one of the people who helped me plan the event. John was one of my best volunteers. And Mike didn't attend any event because he was too busy.


This is nostalgia, my friends. It's hard to believe how much I've grown from these early beginnings of The Rescue up until now. Perhaps others can't see it as well as I can; but I can feel the differences within me. It's an incredible feeling.

To continue, March 17th was fast approaching--the dreaded date of the screening, which had transpired from a GO screening to a Rescue screening, now that the new documentary was finished, released, and touring the country. I didn't hear from Andre again until March 16th, and only then because I put "hoping to hear from Middle America" in my Facebook status. Pathetic. Note to self: Roadies don't use their team phones.

In the weeks before the screening, I was running off flyers, hanging up official posters, sending out Facebook invites, updating my status multiple times a day, just so that more people would see it in their news feeds, emailing professors asking for extra credit opportunities, and personally inviting as many people as I could to The Rescue screening. Andre had officially offered me the two worst dates possible for a screening if he wanted any kind of decent turnout.

Monday the 16th or Tuesday the 17th? of MARCH? Mondays are chapter nights for almost every greek society on campus. Mizzou has a huge Greek Life. Although the administration likes to draw attention to the fact that it's only 25% of the student body, it always feels much, much larger. Probably because only the Greek students ever get involved in anything outside their schoolwork and their party life. As a non-Greek myself, I resent the stereotype, but am starkly aware of it.

Mizzou's reputation as a party school pervades the mind of everyone who attends, who once attended, who visited for a night or two, or who lives in the midwestern United States. Ergo, March 17. Saint Patrick's Day. One of the biggest party nights of the year. I was terrified no one would show up to the screening. Luckily for me, I got four journalism professors to offer extra credit to those students who attended the screening and wrote a reflective paper that included quotes from the speakers. The poor roadies were probably inundated with questions, but I can't imagine that was necessarily a bad thing. I had to give out my own contact information multiple times as people mistook me for a roadie as well. Something I'm not exactly disappointed by.

Back to March 16th. Andre called me wanting to know what was up/why I wanted to talk to him. Well, since I hadn't heard from him since February, I figured verifying the details for the night would be important. I had talked to Ana Hagedorn from Stephens College a few days before asking where she intended to take the roadies to dinner or for entertainment while she was housing them, since the Stephens screening was March 16. She didn't know she was supposed to house them, feed them, or entertain them. In truth, there's no obligation. Personally, I couldn't understand how you wouldn't even offer that. They're traveling speakers, living out of a van...certainly they don't have the means to house and entertain themselves every night without going completely broke.

Andre and I just checked in about the screening the next night at Mizzou and I asked him if he had housing for the night (Lauren had messaged me saying the roadies might need housing the weekend before, but obviously I hadn't heard from Andre, so I suppose they found somewhere to stay the night). He assured me they had a place to stay and they were really excited about The Rescue screening the next night and he'd call me later.

Sure enough, a few hours later Andre called me to say that they did not in fact have a place to stay and could they stay with me? Good thing I'd already informed my roommate that the roadies would probably be staying in our room at least two nights. Annie and I had also decided that the girls could stay in her room (since she's in an all-girls dorm) while I took the boys. That changed later when Brittany, Annie's roommate, informed Annie that she was uncomfortable with the idea of two complete strangers staying in her room even though she had been fine with the idea in the weeks leading up to the screening. Whatever.

After a little swich-up, Brandon and Andre would be staying with Annie and her boyfriend Brett in Brett's room (in an all-boys dorm), while Tessa and Heather would stay with me and my roommate Taylor in mine.

I finished my classes that Monday night at 8:15pm and so I went back to my dorm to try and get some last-minute homework done and studying in before going to meet the roadies and their Stephens contact Jen in downtown Columbia. I went to wait outside Chipotle, and not 10 minutes later I spied an I Heart the LRA t-shirt walking towards me and five people talking and joking. After recognizing Andre (in the LRA shirt) and Heather's red hair I broke into a smile and went to say hello.


We were all introduced (also my first time meeting Jen) and chose Which Wich for a late night dinner, since the roadies hadn't eaten yet. We had a glorious conversation that included Brandon's retelling of the van breakdown in Yuma. I wish Brandon would tell me stories every night. He's fabulous! After some roadie talk, which was mostly me trying to see what I would need as a roadie in the way of money, how the driving is, etc., we figured out housing for the night, so I gave them my address. They drove Jen back to Stephens and I walked home to tell Taylor that they were here and on their way up. She had been at her chapter meeting since before I'd left for class at 5:30. I was so excited!

Then I thought about it...what do I do with four roadies at 10:30 at night? Turns out they were tired and we pretty much all showered and went to bed.

The next morning I could be seen waking up at 7:00 as usual (even though my first class isn't until 9:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays). I was trying to get ahead on my work for that night so I could literally leave class at 4:45pm, go to the screening, and spend the rest of the night with the roadies. Good thing I did, too. Heather and Tessa left around 9am to go to meet the boys and go to breakfast. I left soon after to go to my first two classes after which I met up with all four again and took them all to the dining hall for lunch--I don't eat there anyway, so I might as well use up my meal plan on people who will appreciate it. I promise we have fantastic dorm food. Brandon even said it "exceeded expectations."

After lunch I brought them up to the office where I handed them off to Brandon Schatsiek for a while. The five of them would be promoting the screening that night while I sat bored out of my mind in the office catching up on previous work and getting ahead some more.

I left early to go to my 3:30 class in time to meet the roadies in Speaker's Circle handing out flyers and blaring music from the van. Perfection! I proudly announced to Tessa, Brandon and Heather that I had acquired a copy of the Emperor's New Groove and we would be watching it that night! Favorite Disney movie of all time? I think so! Well it's tied with Mulan and Hercules, but regardless, it's fantastic.

Then it was off to class for me. No clue what Brandon S had the roadies do the rest of the time, but I met up with them again afterwards at my dorm. Andre took a shower in my bathroom while Brandon, Heather, Tessa and I went to Coldstone's to kill time. Here we met up with Brandon Schatsiek and talked about all sorts of things, but mostly just got in the way of other people who wanted to take advantage of Coldstone's Tuesday deal of buy-one-get-one-free with a student ID (which I of course utilized). Andre called after a while and was waiting for us in the lobby of my dorm because the 6 boxes of merchandise had arrived. Finally! They had been running low since the first week of tour. We drove back, loaded the van and both Brandons, Andre, Heather, Tessa and I rode over to the Geological Sciences building, taking the scenic route with the impressive postcard view of the columns backgrounded by Jesse Hall. If you ever see a picture of Mizzou, this is what you see.


We began the setup of the screening--stealing tables from classrooms, calling people last minute trying to get them to come and bring friends, having the comes come to say the van needs to be moved, the usual. At this point I began to get nervous again. We had one hour until the screening started. Nervous for the screening? Not at all! I was incredibly excited to see the new film! We'd figured out the entire electrical system already and the merch table was just about set up. Several people had volunteered to put the TRI pamphlets under the seats. Becca Hoffman had come to bring me my daily dose of caffeine. Everything was running smoothly. I was nervous about attendance--same as the last screening.

In the fall we had over 350 people come to our GO screening. I can still remember sitting down at the bottom of the auditorium just waiting since the roadies and Mike had everything well in hand. With five to ten minutes to go, I braved a turn in my seat just to see the fifty people or so who actually came and was completely blown away as I saw nearly every seat in the auditorium was filled! My heart leapt with joy to see that, and it's still a magical moment that I'll treasure for years to come. Unfortunately, this semester I didn't anticipate as many people coming. About 100 had responded "yes" on Facebook. I guessed 50-60 would actually show up, which would be embarassing at the very least. Much to my surprise, yet again, about 200 people did come to the screening, including Mike Drackert. It's rare to see the man, but he's greatly missed in the IC group--by those of us who were there at the beginning to remember him. Poor guy's so busy.


All four roadies presented wonderfully. I can't say how merch sales went, because I don't have numbers or anything to compare them to even if I did have them, but there were lines for quite a while following the screening.


And so went my screening. Afterwards, the roadies, Brandon S, Amanda Morgan, Emily Becker, Katie Prince, Spencer Pearson, and I all went to the notorious Columbia pizzeria: Shakespeare's. A campus favorite and visitor-frequented landmark. Dinner was on me that night (I can't bring myself to let the roadies pay for things while I'm acting as their host). We returned to my dorm later to crack down on the dozens of tshirts we'd just received.

While simultaneously watching The Emperor's New Groove, we rolled, sorted, and counted all 6 boxes worth of tshirts and restocked the merch. Annie showed up not long after 11 to take the boys back to Brett's dorm for the night. Amanda and Brandon left soon after. Heather had already gone to bed, and around 1am Tessa and I followed.

The next morning, I left for my 8am class while the girls slept in. I struggled through that class, the hour break, and my 10am class because all I wanted was to see the four of them one last time before they hit the road. At 11 I called Andre to find out what they were doing. Surprise! They were staying for lunch and wouldn't leave until 2. They didn't realize Kirksville, MO was only an hour and a half away, and that they didn't need to be there until 6 anyway. So we met a bit before noon back outside the dining hall so I could swipe them in.

We had a slight runin with a psychotic kid dressed all in black with greasy black hair. I'd been watching him for a while as I waited for the roadies to come over and he'd gone into the dining hall and come out with a fork saying in a really high-pitched voice, "someone's going to get hurt today, but you didn't see anything!" and then he ran off cackling. Bizarre. He was either mentally messed up or still high on something. After the roadies came over, Heather announced that a crazy kid had rushed their van screaming/laughing. Yep, same one. Ah, memories.

Lunch was wonderful and long. Emily, Katie, and Spencer showed up halfway through so they, too, could say goodbye. By now it was 1:00 and I was officially skipping my 1:00 class. As we left the dining hall around 1:20, we walked back to the van and I realized I couldn't say goodbye. So I didn't. They were all going to drive to Barnes & Noble to buy copies of Blue Like Jazz, so I went with them. Ironically while there, my friend Margaret from Truman called to find out what I was doing. "Hanging out with the roadies" was my reply. Why do I get such a kick out of saying that?

Andre went across the street to the bank to try and fix his debit card which had split in half. Sadly, he couldn't get it fixed, so we all drove back to campus to drop me off. It was hot outside for no apparent reason. Heather pulled out her jumprope (her portable gym) and Brandon and Tessa talked about inter-team relationships among the roadies. Not that any existed, simply about what would happen if they did and how awkward it would be to actually follow protocol. Andre was being Andre in the background. Gotta love him. We finally said our goodbyes...and my heart began to break for the first time of what would be many times in the near future, unbeknownst to me. My family had left me. Worst of all, I still had homework to do.


I miss that. I miss being able to spend every waking hour surrounded by Invisible Children people (with the exception of class, but you can bet I was sitting around on my laptop most of the time planning The Rescue:STL during those classes anyway). I miss Brandon's storytelling and Tessa taking pictures with my Stitch doll and Andre talking about the chalk drawings in the amphitheater outside my dorm and Heather just being adorable. I miss the energy of always being somewhere with a mission to bring more people along for the ride. I miss that daredevil spirit of "Hey no one's using this, let's make something of it. Hope it's not illegal. Oh it is? Well we'll put it back when we're done." I miss them complaining for a few seconds when the phone rang and Trigg was on the line...for the third time that day. I miss the van--that glorious wreck of a van--that felt much more like home than my dorm ever did.

And so began my Rescue experiences in Spring 2009.

The beginning of The Rescue blogs:

So I just finished reading Melissa Carter's Rescue experience. Despite it being an eleven-page entry, I know for a fact that she did not tell everything. For me, it truly is impossible to sum up those two weeks of my life in a single blog entry, so I am not going to try. Instead, I want to write a series of blog entries that document my time spent with this organization during Spring 2009. While Invisible Children has certainly changed me--and I believe for the better--it wasn't until this past semester that I could tangibly see the changes that have taken place. So my broken-down version of events will go as follows:

1. February/early March (the beginnings of The Rescue)
2. The House Party March 25
3. Rescue Planning/talking with Daniel Trigg
4. The week before The Rescue (at Mizzou)
5. The week before The Rescue (in Saint Louis)
6. The Rescue:STL, day one
7. The Rescue:STL, day two
8. Rescue Riding to Wichita, KS
9. Rescue Watching (Columbia)
10. Rescue Riding to Chicago, IL and The Rescue:Chicago
11. The Aftermath

Trying to Improve

I like the word "improve" because any amount of progress forward is considered an "improvement" and worthy of celebration. So there are many things I want to "improve" in my life. I guess I'm in a listing mood, or maybe I'm just not in the mood to write a lot of prose. Who knows. We'll try this prose-style for a while.

I want to improve the rate at which I blog. I thing it would be a really good way to keep a record of what I'm doing at this point in my life. Last night at Silas and Krista's wedding I was talking with a group of people just five years older than me. All of them were in the working world and advised me to stay in college as long as I could. "The real world sucks," they said. Yes, the real world does suck. But the real world has so much beauty about it as well. I can't reconcile just labeling the entire world as "sucking" when I can glean so much joy from it and it brings me so much happiness.

I want to improve my faith life. I remember back to my early high school years (admittedly not that long ago) when I was incredibly involved with my youth group--the same group that introduced me to Invisible Children, actually. I remember that feeling of community and friendship, almost family. I wish I had something like that on my college campus to run to when things get incredibly stressful or mundane or a combination of the two. Unfortunately, I've decided for many reasons that I dislike the Catholic Church and want to try and find my own way with religious preference. That means that I do nothing about it because I try and keep myself busy enough that I don't have time to go "faith hunting" or whatever term best fits here. I may be a master multi-tasker, but I cannot truly talk to just anyone about God, Jesus, meditation, prayer, etc. while simultaneously writing a paper or reading a textbook. I wish I had more willpower to pursue this. I feel a coffee date is necessary for something like religious discussion, but it can't be with just anyone.

I felt the need to get back into some sort of religion (although I have my reservations about organized religion) during The Rescue, as listed in my previous post. It started the morning of the Thursday before, when I went into the living room to see what Trigg needed from me and I happened to see his study bible on the floor, out from the night before. I never had a study bible, but my cousins did and I remember I loved paging through them. Maybe religion for me is more of a nostalgia inducer. Regardless, it was furthered by Tyler Jones from Nashville. I was enamoured by his personality, and he spoke of how God was doing great things with all The Rescue attendees and riders. Then in Wichita I chose to take part in a prayer circle--something I used to love. It was a bit awkward and unfamiliar, but not necessarily bad. I felt more hypocritical than anything. Everyone a part of that circle was so humbling in their unshaking faith; I didn't feel like I belonged, but I wanted to.

Chicago was even more humbling. So many people standing together singing about love, crying with joy, laughing with tears in their eyes...it reminded me of that church experience I used to have on retreats and sometimes during masses. I don't want to be a part of the Catholic Church necessarily, but I do want that religious community of sorts--or at least someone to talk to about my personal faith. I have to figure out what that is first, though.

I want to improve my health. I'm a fairly unhealthy person, and I'm comfortable with that. I no longer want to be comfortable with my poor eating and exercise habits, since health plays a role in absolutely every other part of life. I'm fairly high energy, but I need to use that to better myself so I can better serve others. I just don't think I have the motivation and self-discipline to be healthy on my own. I need the buddy system; now to find a buddy...

I want to improve my wardrobe. Perhaps this is a bit superficial, but it's true all the same. I consider myself a pretty introverted person, but I wish I could be more of an extrovert. A lot of the time I simply feel out of place in my uniform of a t-shirt and jeans; usually that's because I AM out of place. Too bad I hate shopping...but I've been working on this one for a few days now, and we're going to say goodbye to all those t-shirts that I have been wearing for years. T-shirt quilt #2 is in the works.

I want to improve my self-education. I love learning, and then acting upon that knowledge, but I feel as if I don't give myself enough chance to truly look into things that interest me. I need to read more into politics, for sure. Finances as well.

I may not be able to improve all these in the near future, but I'll start working on them now