Well it's official I'm in the fire department and I'm beggining my on the job training. I've been going to weekly meetings, running around the fire house in full 80 pound gear, checking packs, filling up from the hydrant, and learning the ropes. I was happily welcomed to the 40+ team of volunteer firegfighters, I recieve a pager and full gear this coming Monday, after that I can go on call outs and help with exterior fire fighting and rescue missions. I've also been dropping by during my free time to help them with any maintenance on the engines, talk to the other firefighters or just volunteering my time to them in anyway they need it. I feel honored and slightly intimidated being surrounded by such decorated and talented men and women, some of whom helped during 9/11, but they are all very welcoming and encouraging. They've warned me that the going will get tough at times and that I will see things that I wont ever forget, but at the end of the day we have a duty to protect property and life. I know that I have to start at the bottom, so for now I'm happy cleaning the engines and checking packs, but I've been told that I've done incredibly well, on my first night alone I manged to assemble the full pack after watching the others do it just once. The Capt. and Lou. have said that they have full faith in my ability to become a strong firefighter. I look forward to working along side the brave men and women of Ladder 59.

Winston, Roxy, Rainbow, Blake, Me, Quinn, Signe.

This is my incredible advisee group! Everyone brought something to the table, I learned so much from them. We met every morning for an hour to discuss our previous day, problems, dreams, thoughts, ideas, inspirations or just randomness. We played games and laughed together. I went away feeling blessed to have become so close with six wonderful people.

This is a picture of all my wonderful co-campers and advisers from Not Back To School Camp 2009. We all shared a wonderful week learning and living together in beautiful Vermont.

Why I choose veganism

This is one of the questions I always get asked, and people often don't fully understand, so I'm going to try and explain my feelings on the meat industry and why I choose to be vegan.

1. I believe that dairy is unhealthy for humans to consume, I think that it just seems wrong for me to drink cows breast milk because I am not a calf. Imagine if I was feeding a calf my breast milk....Also I believe that factory farming is cruel and unethical. It is a big factor in childhood obeseity, heart disease and high colesterol. Milks selling point is high levels of calcium and protein, but sea vegetables, leafy greens and nuts have significantly higher amounts.

2. Factory farming is said to be the main benefactor of global warming, producing more Methane anually then 50 million SUV's. Going vegan for a year is 50% more effective than switching to a hybrid car in greenhouse gas emissions.

3. To me killing animals is morally wrong, I don't feel comfortable killing an animal so I don't want someone else to do the dirty work for me.

Thanks for listening.
Peace.

Not Back To School Camp

Well I really don't know what to say! Words can hardly be used to describe how amazing camp is!
I met so many amazing, inspiring, and beautiful people.

This session was slightly different to last year, but ultimately the same concept.
The days were split into different themes: Game day, travel day, food day, movement day, wild card day, and ecology day.
Each day presented us with the opportunity to learn something new from one another, whether it was a hike through the rainy woods in search of fungi, bouldering, capoeira, funk dancing, women's rights, vermi composting, ultimate frisbee, volunteering while traveling, veganism.
They had it all, and so much more. We had dances and live music sessions, massage circles, bonding night, human scatter plots, and soooo many different discussions. No matter where you went in camp you could always hear people having fascinating conversations. I find myself still shocked at how much I learned from people my age, people often make the mistake that you can only learn things from people older then you, but I disagree. Young teens have such interesting views on the world, their ideas of how things should be different, their view on politics, their theories on God, all of it is fascinating and so different to that of an adult. I often ponder the thought of how the world would be if it was dictated by the worlds young people......

When I return from camp I always feel so intellectually enriched, I feel cleansed of the negativity that we are often surrounded by in a world which feeds off of propaganda and materialism.
At camp we do an exercise where we share our intentions for the year, I decided that mine was to write a blog, so that people can better understand how I think, my life, my theories, and my philosophies about unschooling.

I hope you all enjoy,
peace and love.