Grounded

I am back on US soil and have had time to reflect and think about my experiences on the ship and the amazing people I met there. It really was the people that got me through it all. I realized I desperately need sunshine in my life to survive. Although the politics, the lack of leadership skills, illogical scheduling, etc made it a very difficult mission to feel like you were doing something worth while and helpful a lot of great things happened on and off the ship. I just unfortunately didn't really get to be a part of a lot of it. My contributions were very small and maybe insignificant but I know I was suppose to be there. And I am thankful for all the patients I did have the chance to interact with and help out in a small way. I learned that even if a situation is corrupt or not what you expected you don't have to give into it and that you can be there for whatever reason it is that you came for. A sincere desire to help. I've learned that quick judgements of people are useless and only define who you really are when you judge others. We all just need to be loved and understood, which can be really hard to do sometimes. I learned that sometimes even though you want to help so much all you can do is cry with a patient and pray that they will be ok. There is so much hardship in this world but when we reach out to one another there can be joy even if for a brief moment. I learned A LOT about injustice and how we may suffer through that but God still wins because Christ somehow conquered all of that, which is just incredible to me. He forgives so easily while I just complain all of the time. I learned that Nephi and others( the brother of Jared sailing for 344 days!!!) who sailed the seas for many days were saints because they never complained!

The ship scavenger hunt I planned for the new people to learn their way around

Sometimes mormons go wild

Our morale helo flight!!! Highlight of the trip

 Working hard in the scullery

Dance parties in ICU 1

Can't get much more American than that!

My short outing in PI

Happy Canada Day

 Cas REC crew and some "family fotos!"

Mess decks!

Sharing a room with 300 other women

My rack

Top bunk buds

Francisco one of my favorite corpsmen

Looking snazzy to man the rails

Strutting our stuff in the Pways

Our favorite Aussie Scottie!

My personal body guard in Subic Aaron. (kind of like in the film with Whitney Houston in it ya know)

Party in ward 12

oh yeah

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Love the stereotypical tattoo

Don't worry we made the most of our experience too by having dance parties in ICU 1, jamming on the Ukeleles in the chapel, Canada day, Playing games in Casrec, writing songs about the mercy, and flirting with boys (What?! Yes I had to survive somehow ;).