Store Bought Jam

Hey y'all!

Last week completed my 10th week here at Hilton Head Health. I can't believe I have been here that long already and only have 6 more weeks to go! Throughout the 10 weeks I have spent time in the different departments of the company; fitness, nutrition, lifestyle management, guest services, marketing, and program development. Starting this week I get to choose which department I'd like to spend the remainder of my time here. I have chosen to stay in the fitness department so I am excited to see what new things I continue to learn and be exposed to. Each intern is also responsible for coming up with, and completing a final project. I haven't decided what I'll be doing yet but some ideas have been tossed out there, so we'll see what I can come up with!

The girls and I continued to have a blast this weekend with nights out meeting new and interesting people. We met people from Holland, Norway, Argentina, and more from places all around the United States! It continues to amaze me how far people come to vacation in such an amazing place. I guess Americans travel all over outside of the U.S. but it seems different to be meeting people who are coming to our country instead of us going to theirs.

As most of you know, the institute provides meals for the interns. These meals are spectacular but sometimes during the week all we crave is something simple and easy to throw together. We're never without the ingredients for a quality snack; pb and j are essentials in the intern house. Over the last 10 weeks I have been eating store bought jam... I know, big news. All my life I have had the pleasure of being spoiled by my mother's AMAZING homemade jam. Even during college I would bring jam back to school with me after visiting home; heaven forbid I would ever have to purchase jam from a store! *gasp!* Anyway, my point is store bought jam just doesn't cut it. Yes it gets the job done; when a pb and j is needed store bought jam will suffice. However, the sandwich just isn't the same!

My Fellow Wahing-tonians

If I can’t come to Washington, Washington will come to me! Last week a woman approached me and asked if I was Laura. I told her yes and she proceeded to hold up her name tag and ask “can you pronounce this?” Underneath everyone’s name is the state and city of which they are from. However their name is in large bold writing where their hometown is in smaller, regular text. Naturally my eyes focus on her name. Her name was a short, simple name and easy to pronounce. I won’t mention her real name but for story purposes lets use the name Liz. I looked at her confused and responded “uh…Liz?” She shakes the name tag (as if I was I was completely missing the point) so I redirected my attention to her hometown. E… e-num…ENUMCLAW! I shouted in disbelief. She started laughing and said “nobody has 1. ever heard of it, and 2. can never pronounce it.” Somebody had told her I was also from Washington so I was able to share with her that I too am from a place people have never heard of. Finally somebody who knows where I’m really from! I told her I had just graduated from CWU and used to play basketball tournaments in Enumclaw; she was thrilled to hear that I had spent time in eastern Washington.

The fun doesn’t stop there. This week as I’m doing arriving guest’s screenings, there were FIVE people from Washington! Three from Spokane, one from Vashon Island, and one from Port Orchard! I couldn’t believe it. Besides those from Spokane, people were arriving that were from places closer and closer to my home! I was so excited to tell them I was from Bainbridge Island and that I know people from the places where they are from. They thought it was so cool I found my way all the way here to Hilton Head. Besides the lady from Redmond my first couple weeks here, I was yet to meet anyone else that had come from as far as I had (within the country.)

I had to share that with y’all. It was too exciting! : -) Yayyy Washington!

Nerd Alert

So just in case y'all thought I was exaggerating about just how hot and humid it is down here, check this out. Monday: heat index was 110, Tuesday heat index was 112; need I go on? For those of you that wear, or have ever worn, glasses know that occasionally when you walk INside the lenses fog up for a few seconds before they clear up. Well not in South Carolina. My glasses fog up when I step OUTside; and not just for a few seconds. We're talkin' minutes here. Sunglasses, eye glasses, anything with a lens will take at least 5 minutes for the fog to subside. Quality nerd alert I tell yeah when I ask people to wait up so I can see while we walk.

H3I has a company blog and there is a new posting every week Monday - Friday. Each day a different staff member is responsible for the posting. For this week's rotation I am in the marketing department; whoever was in charge of this Monday's posting doesn't have a free moment to post their blog so I was asked to come up with something. It won't be posted until Monday 6/21 but I submitted it to the marketing coordinator yesterday. Here is the link to the H3I blog, so if you have the chance, check out my posting on Monday! http://www.h3daily.com/

I also recommend checking out this blog every few days because there are awesome postings about everything you can think of health and fitness related! I'm excited to have some of my work posted on the company site!

Anyway, here are the rest of the photos from graduation! : -) Again, it was so much fun sharing the day with my family and friends. We had an amazing time and it felt so great to see everybody!

Graduation Weekend

I have just experienced the quickest, yet at times slowest, 48 hours of my life. How is this possible you might ask? Well, my journey started at 5am Friday morning when I got up to go to the Hilton Head Island airport for my 6:50am flight to my connecting flight and then on to Seattle. Long story short, my flight got canceled, causing me to miss my connecting flight. I was shuttled to the Savannah airport in Georgia where my plane finally took off at 12:30pm (by noon I was supposed to have already landed in Seattle and have been on my way to Ellensburg). At 6:00pm I finally landed in Seattle and got picked up by my wonderful parents and brother! Couple hours later we were in Ellensburg and I was able to spend time with my wonderful girls! I can’t explain how good it was to see them and be able to catch up. The passed 8 weeks have flown by but at the same time I feel like it’s been forever since I’ve been able to catch up with and hang out with my friends.

Saturday morning was graduation! I have posted photos of Kristen, Sarah and I waiting in line to walk into the stadium as well as while we were sitting through the ceremony. We had a beautiful day for an outside graduation. It wasn’t too hot; sunny with blue skies, no wind, no rain. I’m so happy that I was able to come home for this experience. It was amazing sharing the moment with my family and closest friends. I couldn’t stop smiling and yes, there were a couple glistening tears here and there. After graduation we joined Kristen and her family at her boyfriend Jason’s house for sandwiches. It was so hard to say goodbye to Sarah and Kristen and their families : -( I miss everyone so much; it was such a treat to come back even for just one day. After all of the photos were taken, and most of the food was gone, we traveled back to the Westside to spend the rest of the afternoon/evening at my Grandparents house on Lake Washington. What a treat to see both sets of grandparents on my graduation day! It was fabulous lying out in the sun, sipping on lemonade, and catching up with Grandma and Papa. I couldn’t have asked for a better way to end this short and sweet visit to Washington State. (When in the south one must clarify they are talking about Washington State rather than Washington D.C.)

At 9pm Saturday evening there I was at the airport once again flying south. I didn’t want to leave Washington; I wasn’t ready to leave the Pacific Northwest during this beautiful time of year. These are my favorite months to be in Seattle; on the lake, walking around the city, on the ferries… I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to my friends and to college. Even though I haven’t been in Ellensburg since December, I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to the last 4 years of my life that have been so good to me. I have missed Washington State more than I ever thought that I would. Even though I was only back for a short time, it was what I needed; it was refreshing and a tiny break that I needed to push me through the next 8 weeks away. Thank you so much to my family and friends for making it a phenomenal 24 hours and a fantastic experience! I love you all so very much.

Anyway, my redeye flight heading south went smoothly. Left Seattle Saturday night at 11:30pm and arrived at Hilton Head Island at noon on Sunday. The time on the planes and waiting in all the different airports went by painfully slow, but the time I had with my friends and family went all too quickly. I couldn’t believe I’d flown across the country, graduated, and flown back all in just over 24 hours. On that note, I’m exhausted and am going to bed. Enjoy the photos, there are more to come of me and the fam once my daddy e-mails them to me : -)

WOOT WOOT Central Washington University Alumni!

Y'all listen up!

Because I am returning to Seattle tomorrow I thought it would be appropriate to blog about slash warn y’all about one of my new found southern habits. I say y’all. There. That’s it. My big news. So y’all better get used to it! It’s definitely not one of those things where I was like “that sounds really cool, I want to start saying that.” It just started happening without me even realizing it. The first time it came out of my mouth it honestly surprised me and I stopped for a moment, waiting for someone to point out the fact that I had just said the word y’all. Then I remembered that I am in fact in the south where people would be more inclined to look at you funny if you say “you all” rather than y’all. So yes, I am expecting a few giggles, smiles, or snickers here and there when I’m trying to get everyone’s attention or ask what y’all have been up to. But at least now you can’t say that I didn’t warn you : -)

That said, I am SOOOO beyond excited to be coming to Washington TOMORROW! And I most certainly can’t wait to graduate and see my family and friends!

See y’all TOMORROW! YAY!!

The Worst Idea... EVER

Another fantastic week interning at Hilton Head Health Institute! This week I was in the Lifestyle Management department so I attended a few lectures offered by the onsite psychologist. Obviously I can’t share what I heard or what people felt comfortable contributing to the discussions, but I can say that I admire each and every individual who allowed themselves to open up in such a vulnerable setting. Often times tears found their way to the corners of my eyes and was truly happy that these guests found their way to H3I. Everyone comes with a story and experiences that have molded them into who they are today.

At the end of the week a guest who has been at the institute for 3 weeks sat down with myself and the other interns to tell us about his experience here. He expressed his thanks and gratitude for our energy, motivation, support, and encouragement during his kick start to a longer, healthier life. His cholesterol, blood pressure, weight, measurements, and triglycerides are the lowest they’ve been in over 30 years and he couldn’t be happier about the results he’s already experienced. We couldn’t stop smiling at his excitement to get home and continue the healthy habits he’s learned here. Before we said goodbye, he said that we assisted in adding at least 10 more years to his life, and for that, he is eternally grateful. I’ve said it before, but I keep saying it to myself everyday; God couldn’t have blessed me with a more rewarding or fulfilling experience. I still can’t believe how much I learn every single day and all of the opportunities that arise even when I least expect them to.

As usual the weekend was a blast! It consisted of the usual dancing the nights away and spending the days at the beach or pool. I wish I had some spectacular story for you all but this weekend was relatively low key compared to the last 6. Although the weekend consisted of fun in the sun, it also brought a new experience I’ll never forget… in a bad way. I’m pretty sure we’ve all had bad ideas throughout our life but I can assure you I had the worst of them all this morning. Over the passed 7 weeks here I have been doing a lot of running outdoors. Not to point out the obvious, but the last 7 weeks were not in the month of June. Choosing to do any sort of physical activity outside during the summer, in the south, any time of day is by far the worst idea anyone could have. I stepped out into the morning sun (and immense heat) at 11am today. I set out on my usual 5.5 mile loop; out of the plantation, down to the beach, along the beach, and then back onto the plantation back to my villa. A route I’ve never had to stop to walk on forced me not only to slow down to a sorry excuse for a jog, but also to come to a slow walk not once, not twice, but three times before I reached my front door. Looking like I had just participated in a baseball throwing dunk contest at a carnival I finally returned home. Shaky hands reaching for my water bottle I decided that my days of running outside here are over. Why not get up early and run before 8am you might ask? Oh no reason, just because it is JUST AS HOT AND HUMID AT 5am AS IT IS ALLLLLLLLLL DAYYYYYYY LOOOOOOOONG!

Anyway, I am super psyched to return to Washington next weekend for graduation! I can’t wait to see my family and friends and take a million pictures of me and my friends GRADUATING COLLEGE! YAYYY!

I love and miss you all. I’m sorry I’m unable to spend more than 24 hours in Washington because I would love to see each and every one of you! But unfortunately I’m literally landing, driving to Ellensburg, graduating the next morning, and driving back to the airport to fly back to Hilton Head. However, I have already completed 7 of the 16 weeks so at this rate I’ll be home before we know it!

Keep in touch, I love hearing from everybody.

Blogger Wanted

Please accept my apologies for being absent in the blog world for a week. I have received some comments from certain individuals that they have been upset with my lack of blogging over the last couple of weeks. You have my word that I will try to keep up on sharing my every waking moment with you : -)

Last week I experienced some truly touching moments. For those of you that don’t know, some people who come to Hilton Head Health Institute come here to make life changing decisions. Up until their arrival they haven’t lived healthy lives either at all or not for many years. Some have serious physical limitations either orthopedic and/or diseases that prohibit them from engaging in certain activities. Others have chosen, for whatever their personal reasons are, to remain inactive and consume an extremely unhealthy, unbalanced diet. It is a huge step for all these types of people to even choose to come to Hilton Head Health; I can only imagine how intimidating it might be for them. Changing the way you live your life is no easy task, for anybody.

Among the other interns and professional staff at the institute, everyday I have the chance to positively impact somebody’s life. Sometimes these chances come about in an obvious way, other times I haven’t realized just how much we assisted in changing, even saving, someone’s life. Friday afternoon after a class I taught I was approached by a man who was with us for about 3 weeks. I had watched him work hard in every class he participated in and caught him in the gym on his own numerous times. He wanted to say goodbye and thanked me for all of our help and support; that he couldn’t have done it without us and that he appreciates us and what we do more than words could express. Before I knew it I was embraced in a hug from a man who, unbeknownst to me until this moment, probably wouldn’t have lived another 5 years if he hadn’t made life altering changes to improve his health. He began to tear up and shot me an ear to ear smile as he scurried out the door. Later that evening after dinner, his friend approached us girls at the intern table and reiterated just how much we had helped his friend. He told us that he had quit smoking before he came here and had quickly put on a lot of weight; adding to his already unhealthy conditions. We were informed this man has a 4 year old daughter and was determined to be around to not only raise her, but be actively involved in her life for many years to come. It was an amazing feeling knowing that I played even the smallest part in changing his life around; not only for his sake but for his loved ones as well.

On a lighter note, the girls and I went kayaking on Saturday afternoon. It was low tide so we got to navigate through a maze of oyster beds. The sand bars and oyster beds were so tall we couldn’t see over them; it was truly a maze full of wildlife. We saw fish jumping, all sorts of birds, and crab pots that had been stranded on the sand waiting for the tide to go back out. We felt like we were on the discovery channel or on a photography mission for National Geographic. After over an hour paddling (against the wind) we decided to head back. Being the smart young ladies we are we decided to go against the wind on the way out so the paddle back would be a breeze. Yes pun intended. Anyway, of course the wind decided to completely die at the very moment we were ready to turn around. We were exhausted and starving so it was a rather interesting/cranky paddle back to “Water Dog” where we’d rented the kayaks. At least we got a killer upper body workout out of the deal!

I have posted some photos of Saturday and Friday night. Friday we just went to a local bar down the street from us called the “Big Bamboo.” They always have live music and a casual beach front atmosphere. After the Big Bamboo we walked across the street to the “Frosty Frog;” another local fun spot with loud music and all sorts of fun fruity drinks to choose from. Saturday night we went out to Savannah, Georgia to check out the club scene we’d been told so much about. Savannah is a fun city only about an hour away from us that we spent the day in a couple of weeks ago and had a blast. So this time we decided to check out the night scene and see what it’s all about. We had an amazing time being around tons of people and experiencing new fun places to go. It was extremely warm out so the walk around the city from one place to the other was quite pleasant.

We are about to head out to a bbq we’ve been invited to by a couple of locals we met Friday night. Should be a lovely way to end the weekend! Keep checkin’ in, I’ll try to write again in a couple days! : -)

Love and miss you all TONS!