Mid-Stay Orientation (The truth behind the name change)

This orientation, we were in a much smaller group, and instead of meeting in Ponferrada, we met in Valladolid. My city. The other kids from our chapter got there on Friday night, but Paige, Esther and I arrived at the youth hostile Saturday morning. We arrived to a group of about eight kids begging us to bring snacks from our houses. Apparently the dinner the night before had been pretty bad. We settled into our rooms, Paige and I ended up in the boys room... which was trashed, and on top of that just smelled like boys. After making our beds, we all went downstairs to the room where all of the activities would take place.

The first activity was to draw ourselves, a way to introduce ourselves to the group. We then had to surround our picture with certain things that explain our lives, or just things we love to do. I started to draw my objects, of course the first thing I drew was my cheer bow and pom poms. I realized after I'd finished that that particular thing is no longer significant in my life, nor explains who I am. Yeah I can tell people I play sports in America, but here that means nothing. I went three years of my life being defined by three sports, and now I have begun to realize that they mean nothing. They don't actually define me, I am so much more than that. I am Megg, I speak Spanish, I love to take pictures and make videos, I would love to travel the world, and learn to speak every language. I love food, and more than that I love the culture and the stories that come along with each plate. I love meeting people, but most of all I love getting to know people. I love that here in Spain, I can be a person known for and appreciated by my personality, my attributes, instead of my sports and grades.

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So, I wrote this beginning section at the end of january, so I can't give you exact details on each activity but I will try and give you an overview.

Now, there were a lot of significant moments throughout the weekend, but one of the biggest, a moment that will stick with me forever, was when I decided to change my name back to Meg. If you didn't already know, my name is Margaret, but I was born with the nickname Meg, with one G. When I was in seventh grade I decided Meg, just wasn't good enough. Also, take into account that seventh grade was the worst year of my life. Anyways, I started spelling my name with two G's. Which I loved, honestly everyone loved it. By the time I got to high school, no one even remembered that it was originally spelled with one G. As you are hearing this story, I am sure you are thinking wow this girl is crazy, who cares how many G's she has in her name? I guess I care. And that is the reason for the name change, because I don't need two G's to be original, to be cool, to be different, to be more Me. My name is Meg, and I am one hundred percent sure that I can be those things with our without the G. The extra G is irrelevant. But after four years I finally began to realize that what I needed was an attitude change and a confidence boost, not a G. So as you see, the last G is crossed off in the picture above, signifying the Meg, not the new one, but the original one.

Overall, the weekend was amazing. Getting together with my fellow AFSers is always a pleasure, and it is so sad to think our last orientation is this coming May. But I thank every single one of you, for helping me realize who I am, and I who I am striving to become. I am so lucky to have you all by my side, I don't know what I would do without you.