I have always been one to make fast friends. I like to think that I’m never really alone and my next friend or group of friends is just around the corner waiting for me to introduce myself. However, at my last job before coming to serve with the Lakes Region Conservation Corps (LRCC), I really struggled on that front for the first time in my life. I was living in a new city with no housemates, and I had difficulty making social inroads with the older population at the small company. Work was physically and mentally exhausting and I was frequently expected to work overtime, leaving me with little time or energy to go out and meet locals my age.
When I applied to become a member of the LRCC AmeriCorps program, I knew that I would be living in a two bedroom cottage and sharing the space with five other people. This concept was simultaneously exciting and terrifying. I looked forward to having friends under the same roof who I would share work and home responsibilities with, but I worried about boundaries, personal space, and whether or not my social/housemate skills had survived all that time alone. After all, this position is a ten-month commitment, and the shared cottage lifestyle is the opposite of what I had grown accustomed to living by myself in a large loft apartment in the city.
I’m happy to say that the experience so far has been so much better than I had anticipated. Many of my fellow LRCC service members come from vastly different backgrounds and areas of the country, but we all share common passions for service, conservation, and good humor. We share chore responsibilities in an equitable manner (something that I never experienced with past housemates) and even have Sunday evenings set aside for "family dinner". (Kudos to Nikka and Kyle for some amazing tacos at our first family dinner!)
In the past two weeks since we moved in together and started serving at the Squam Lakes Association (SLA), I feel that we have really come together as a team and as a household. We approach each challenge and task knowing that we have the support of our fellow service members. For example, one of the major tasks that we all worked together to achieve, was the moving of an enormous wood chip mulch pile in the auxiliary parking lot. A large portion of the mulch was used to cover the path down to the private docks on the cove in order to prevent water from pooling and causing soil erosion. Over the span of a few days, we laid down something like 20 yards of mulch on the pathway, creating a beautiful brown ribbon where the eroding path had been, but still, the mulch mound remained. Next, we had to move the remainder of the pile to the bottom corner of the lot, where a small pile already existed. Within a few hours, the old mulch pile had been entirely removed and the new mound, dubbed "El Mulcho" (named after "El Capitan" for its sheer size), stood over eight feet tall. What had seemed like an insurmountable task for any individual, had been completed by a team of six in under eight service hours.
Although it has been less than two weeks since we all walked through the door and met each other for the first time, I already feel like I am part of a family of friends. I'm sure that the coming winter and each ensuing season will pose new challenges for us, but I am confident that we can face any challenge with each other's support. As it turns out, all of my worries and apprehensions about living and serving in close proximity and adjusting to a shared lifestyle were just in my head. When you live with friends, compromising comes easily, and the benefits are shared by all.
Eric is a full-term member serving at the Squam Lakes Association. He graduated from UMass Amherst with a degree in Environmental Science. Learn more about Eric here!