clachnaben | I'm Just A Promise to Pick Up The Phone

There are a lot of things I've been wanting to write about and some annoucements and just, stuff. I'm coming out from under my Dominican Republic-shaped rock and having a lot of conflicting emotions.

A Numbered List

1. I have just over a month remaining on my time here in the Dominican Republic. After that, I'm going home and starting university. When I get back I want to make a long post about stuff that happened here and thoughts but for now I'm keep myself to the knowledge that I will always carry this place and these people in my heart. I'm very conflicted about leaving.

2. I'm an OTW staffer! About a month ago now I got inducted into the Support Committee as a Support Staffer. I'm still a junior staffer but I'm having a lot of fun, learning a lot and really enjoying my time so far. I answer people's questions about the archive and pass messages on to other committees and spend a lot of time in chat. I've wanted to volunteer for the OTW for a long time and it's great to be able to help people practically with the Archive and their fan experience. I'm under my fandom name - girlmarauders- which is what I am everywhere, so if you submit a Support ticket, it might get answered by me!

3. I reread all the Tamora Pierce books on my kindle a couple months ago and, with nothing else to do, made a spreadsheet of all the noble families mentioned in the novels, as well as any pertinent details I could think of. It's a public gdoc now and if you're at all interested you can access it here. (Personally I think it's pretty cool.)

4. I'm going to Glasgow Pride! Well, I am PLANNING to go to Glasgow Pride but nothing is going to stop me! I was going to go last year and the Sick As Balls happened so I am going to go THIS YEAR. I land in the UK on the 6th and Pride is on the 10th but I am STILL GOING. I'mg goint to dress awesome and I'm going to meet leish and littleblackghost/xopip/ghostbones (girl you have too many usernames) and it's gonna be great. *crosses fingers*

5. I wanna write about being here so bad, but my blog is mostly for family and people who sponsered me, so I can't really write my atheist rantings on there? I'm an atheist with a huge interest in religion, although in an intellectual way not in a spiritual way. The NGO I work for is Christian and I tell people I'm Christian and I 'm a member of my church and a lot of my friend are Christian. Basically I'm an atheist who is a practicing Christian. Which, CONFUSING. I'm very glad that my atheism isn't something I doubt or have concerns about, I'm very certain about my decisions. It's just been painful at times to watch people I care about be wrapped up in a religion and system I believe to be unethical. As well, it's sometimes painful and ethically disconcerting to know that to be a Christian and to be part of a church is often the best thing and only support network a young person can find, therefore putting me in the position of advocating religion to young people I care about. I'm very :/// and don't think I even can fully express my opinions about it, since there's really no black and white about it. It is heart-breaking for me to watch my friends, who are everything from middle school students to old housewives worry about their salvation and believe that they are constantly falling short of some grand cosmic plan. :/// No one deserves to think, even for a second, that they are going to suffer forever. No one.

I miss everyone and am, for one, glad to be coming home and closer to a lot of you and with better internet