phillipetheotter

I have nothing of import to say at the moment, so I figured I'd do something different. I used to be a newspaper columnist, and I think I'm going to post some of my old articles. This is the first column that I ever wrote. Hope you enjoy.

And just for the record, I love my Cure Acoustic Greatest Hits album. Nothing like the cure with a horn section instead of a keyboard.


As I climbed the final slope to Picnic Rock, the misty tendrils of fog that had blanketed the mountain for most of my climb melted away, revealing a tiny town nestled in a verdant valley 3000 feet below. My gaze swept across the town, traveling to the shimmering blue of the Pacific Ocean and the faint rise of volcanic Mt. Edgecumbe in the distance. Such simple, natural beauty struck me an almost physical blow, sucking away my breath and causing tears to dance in my eyes. This, I thought, is adventure.
The quest for such a feeling has long dictated the path of my life. I am Kyle Bray, a 22-year-old Americorps Volunteer In Service To America (VISTA). Americorps is a federal non-profit organization that was created by President Lyndon Johnsons Economic Opportunity Act of 1964. Americorps is designed to create, assist and sustain programs that seek to remedy problems associated with low-income society, such as homelessness, drug and alcohol abuse and illiteracy.
When I graduated from the University of Southern Mississippi with a B.A. in Journalism in May 2001, I was aimless and scared. I had my diploma, but it was just a flimsy piece of paper, not even sufficient for kindling if I was evicted from my apartment and forced to live under a bridge, something that I was beginning to see as definite career choice if I didnt find a job soon. I had no concrete career goals, just a burning desire to travel, to experience lifes possibilities in a pure and unadorned fashion, and to use my writing skills to share what I discover.
I learned of the Americorps program through several friends who had enrolled, and quickly decided that it would fulfill all my current needs. I would get to travel, my student loans would be deferred, and I would be doing something beneficial for my fellow man. Americorps is based on the idea that the skills of volunteers are best used when the volunteers live and work with the low-income people that are being served. A volunteers pay is set at or below the poverty line for the community in which they live, and I was told repeatedly to prepare myself for a year of barely scraping by. However, I had just come off of a 4-year stint as a habitually unemployed college student, and the promise of $840 each month was like an angels clarion call.
After a series of applications, phone interviews, ticking clocks and gnawed fingernails, I was offered and accepted a position in Sitka, Alaska, a small town of 8,500 folks located on Baranof Island. Although Sitkas population swells with tourists during the summer months, for most of the year it is a sleepy fishing town, constantly drenched by rain and often shrouded in fog.
Although I am always on call to assist with a variety of programs, I do have two specific jobs in Sitka. I am a grant writer for Sitka Prevention and Treatment Services, an organization that offers drug and alcohol rehabilitation and education, and I am the program assistant for Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Sitka, a branch of the nationally recognized Big Brothers and Big Sisters of America program, widely recognized as one of the most effective mentoring organizations in the world today.
I have been living and working in Sitka for nearly two months, and have already experienced tremendous joy, and great sorrow. Living in a culture so different from south Mississippi is a daily adventure. I look forward to sharing my experiences with the people of Hattiesburg, and I hope that you will follow me on my journey.