My 2012 Mission Statement

A few nights ago, upon receiving our permanent team assignment, members of Summit 5 "Mt. St. Helens" were asked to write a sort of time capsule statement, to be sealed in an envelope and left unread until the end of the year. Because I was hugely excited upon recieving my permanent team assignment, I typed up the thing and decided to post it here, with an edit or two for clarity. Enjoy.

Well, it finally happened, and just the way I wanted it. Community Relations. Stayed in Summit. Good people all the way through. None of the people I wanted to avoid. Boots on the ground, the scouts of FEMA Corps. Working with people that just experienced a disaster. The vanguard of the relief effort.
I am so freaking excited right now. Everything is fantastic. Aside from having Sean or Rii or any other close friends on my team, it’s hard to see how this could have gone any better. Celebrating with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 right now. Hell, PT (Physical Training) today was cancelled because of Isaac and I got a package with DVDs! It doesn’t get any more exciting or better then that.

Now, it’s not as if there won’t be challenges. Tents, for one. I’m unused to camping and don’t much like it, but if an area gets totally shitwrecked—especially since we’re coming in RIGHT AFTER the disaster—we’ll probably be tenting most of the time. I can live with that. New horizons and whatnot. There’ll be the challenge of working with newly disaster-hit people, and the enormous responsibility of initially assessing the damage and sending back accurate and timely information to my FEMA overlords. I will have to be as observant, on-the-ball and analytical as I have ever been.

But it’s also gonna be absolutely rad. I’m gonna be the first person people see on the worst day of their lives, the person that lets them know that they can come back from the abyss, the person who directs them towards help and gives them hope. That’s my year’s task, my great work. And I absolutely cannot wait to get started. It’s gonna be a wild ride and one hell of a year. Let's get this traveling circus on the road.