Month 12 wrap up

Ok, so it may be terrible, but I'm retroactively renaming the last month "Give Back" because that's what it ended up being (and probably should have been from the beginning). I did, twice, attempt to look up information on working on my lisp at home but didn't get much out of it, and I did buy a SpinBrush last night! But alas, the Teeth and Speech should have been knocked off the list a long time ago when, for months, I kept pushing it back and back until it ended up here at the end.

BUT, I am not going to be hard on myself for not accomplishing that goal because it's not as if I didn't accomplish anything in my final month! Instead, let me share what I did accomplish!

I pained a vintage poster. I rock! Ok, no, no I didn't.

I've taken 10 training classes with the Red Cross this month, including Shelter Management, Disaster Action Team Orientation, Basic Food Safety, Defensive Driving, and passed the Emergency Response Vehicle exam which means I can now, in the case of a local or national emergency, be called to drive one of these puppies:

Oop. Nope. I meant...

Yep. There ya go.

ERVs are used to bring food and supplies to areas affected by disasters. As a certified ERV driver, I may now get a call or an email asking if I'm willing to volunteer as a driver or crew on a call that requires the ERVs. It may include driving one across country to a national disaster or driving it to a site nearby to serve snacks to firefighters working on a wild fire.

I've also signed up to be on call for the DAT team (Disaster Action Team), which means every shift that I'm signed up for could mean a call to a house-fire or some other disaster for which the Red Cross would send assistance. It could mean helping apartment dwellers at 3 am find somewhere to stay after a fire in their building or bringing food and water to the first responders. And I've done my first Shelter shift, spending 8pm to 6am at a shelter set up for those displaced by an apartment fire.

I also made a huge step this month by submitting my Peace Corp application!

The process has already started out bumpy but I'm going to keep forging on and hope to make that life-goal a reality.

I don't recall if it was something I mentioned in this blog or elsewhere, but I had a thought a few months back that my next life project should be "30 years selfish, 30 years selfless". I spent the first 30 years of my life focusing mainly on what I wanted for myself and what I thought I had coming to me in life. But now I'm finding that life doesn't really work that way and that giving back is a thousand times more rewarding.

The twelfth month begins!!

Can you believe it, readers?? This will be the last month in my year-long adventure! I'll save the reflection on it all for the end of the month, but it just blows my mind that
(a. A whole year has almost gone by
(b. That I've stuck with it for this long
(c. That I've stuck with it for this long

AND I kept up the blog!

Where do I get me one of these?

 Ok, enough self-congratulations. Let's get on with Month 12! Teeth and Speech.

I was about 26 years old when I discovered that I have a lisp. That's right folks. That's how un-self-aware I am. This nice guy with a lisp started talking to me at a party and pretty soon he thought we'd be in league together, "You have a lisp too!" he said. And I was like "No I don't." Apparently, not only am I not self-aware, but I'm kind of a jerk.

Is what that guy should have said.

 
I inherited a small under-bite from my Dad's side of the family which is what I attribute to this small lisp. And for several years now I've been wanting to get invisalign to fix the problem, hoping that would also get rid me of the lisp. But now with my planned travels ahead, I can't fork out the dough. So instead, this month will be about learning ways to strengthen my tongue to form certain sounds properly, especially "s".

Also, I've been a little concerned about my teeth with my vegan diet, as I've heard sometimes improperly balanced vegan diets can lack the proper nutrition to keep one's chompers nice and healthy. And I may look into whitening, or at least research the topic to see if it's recommended or not.

Here's to a healthy mouth!