Season 4 Step 1 Blog 19: Mitchmas (24) Part 3: Initiation Island

 Mitchmas (24) Part 3: Initiation Island

I entered the forest on the island, and I looked around. There was a fire pile setup, and directly in front of it was a ton of small stones organized in the shape of an airplane under an arch. I sat down and opened my cinch sack. Inside was a note on top of a pile of stuff. The note read, "Welcome to Initiation Island! In this bag you will find a mosquito net-suit, matches, a bottle opener and a water bottle. Clue 1: Look to the trees to find your way."

I put on the mosquito net-suit, looked up, and immediately recognized Marshall's orange shovel hanging from a tree. As I got closer, I noticed there was a second note on the shovel. Before I could read it out of the corner of my eye, I saw a neon headband. I turned around just as Marshall emerged from the trees behind me. "What are you doing here?" I asked, "I thought you had a work thing!"

"No, that's the real Marshall." He replied, "I'm your spirit guide."

I laughed at that and then continued on my quest. The second note read, "Clue 2: In the water there are leeches- So no escape each other beaches. You must find the treasure on THIS island. Look for the pile of rocks." I started digging at the "airplane stone pile." After going a few inches down, I realized that there was nothing there.

"You know for a spirit guide you're not that useful." I said to Marshall, who was sitting in a meditative position.

"You haven't asked any questions." He replied.

"Is this the right spot to be digging?" I asked.

"No." He answered.

I rolled my eyes and continued hunting around until I found another pile of rocks. Under this pile, I found a box that had a third clue on it. "Clue 3: Boy drink up! Inside this box is everything you need to send us the signal. Once you leave this island, you leave behind your 23rd year never to return. You are officially 24! So make some noise & enter this new year of your life! Don the gear inside so we can recognize you as you hatch into this year!"

Inside the box was a bottle of beer, two bottle rockets, and, most importantly, was a chicken headband and elastic beak. "'Hatch into this year'!" I laughed. "You guys are ridiculous!"

I drank the beer, put on the chicken suit, and (with some assistance so I didn't blow myself up) launched the bottle rockets! I could not stop laughing because, okay, fine, a scavenger hunt on an island, that's fun. But what the heck did the chicken suit have to do with anything?!

Have a Greattastic Day and Be Safe 

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

Season 4 Step 1 Blog 18: Mitchmas (24) Part 2: Send The Signal

 Mitchmas (24) Part 2: Send The Signal

August had to move out of Pittsburgh at the beginning of July because her lease was up. Around the same time, she happened to find a new job and the training for it was in Cincinnati, so she's been living with Marshall.

As she had promised, Aspen and Ben (August's boyfriend) picked me up around 6, the day after my birthday, and we drove to Marshall's house. When we got there, I hugged August, and I noticed that she was very sweaty. "Sorry," she said, "Marshall and I were just out on the lake. I'm getting in the shower after him."

After August and Marshall had made themselves decent, we all had a drink and hung out. The whole time everyone was telling me that they had a "big adventure" planned for the following day and that I "could possibly die." I fell asleep on the sofa around 2:30 a.m., so August woke me up and guided me to my air mattress.

When I woke up the following morning, I had to go to the bathroom. While I was washing my hands, I heard someone knocking at the door. So I walked downstairs and saw Kid standing there!

"What are you doing here?" I exclaimed.

"Well I wasn't gonna miss the big adventure." She replied.

We woke up everyone else, and we all went out to eat breakfast. "So," Aspen said when we had finished eating, "We're going to go on a little boat ride and then when we get back we will go on the adventure."

"Oh no!" Marshall said," I forgot I have a work meeting so I won't be able to make it on the boat, but I can meet you guys for the adventure."

When we got to the boathouse, we tried to order a motorboat for everyone except Marshall, but they did not have any that were big enough. So instead, we ordered two paddleboats. I sat on the back of August and Ben's boat, and Aspen and Kid got their own. Eventually, Aspen and Kid decided to get a motorboat and try to tow us back because it was just going to take us forever to get back.

As soon as Aspen and Kid were out of sight, August turned to me. "Okay Mitchie," she said, "the adventure starts now!"

"Wait what!" I said, confused.

"We're going to have to blindfold you." Ben said.

They put the blindfold on and started paddling faster and faster. Finally, I felt the boat hit land, and August and Ben took my hands and led me off the boat. I felt August put a cinch sack on my back, and she said, "Okay you can take off your blindfold now!"

I looked around and realized what was going on immediately. I was on an island with a tiny forest on it, and August and Ben were pulling away! "Have fun Michie!" August yelled, cackling away.

"What's going on!" I yelled, confused.

"Initiation!" Ben replied. "Send us the signal."

"Oh, no one's ever going to believe this." I said under my breath.

To Be Continued...

Season 4 Step 1 Blog 17: Mitchmas (24) Part 1: Thankful For Friends And Family

 Mitchmas (24) Part 1:Thankful For Friends And Family

Confession time! When I write a story based on my life, sometimes I do not tell the entire truth. I sensor or change things either to make the story flow better or for the privacy of an individual. I am telling you this now because you need to understand something that happened, but I can't tell you the whole story. I haven't made an installment in a couple of weeks and the reason is that I broke up with my girlfriend, and things got pretty nasty.

I call my birthday “Mitchmas” because it's such a good pun. Ishana and I broke up on August 5th and Mitchmas is August 19th. The two-week period between those two events was emotionally draining.

I left New Story at about 4:00 on Mitchmas. When I got into my car I texted Aspen and asked her if she wanted to get coffee. We met at Crimson Cup and we talked about our weekend plans. “So,” Aspen explained, “Ben and I will pick you up tomorrow around 6. We will hang out a bit at Marshall's house and then on Saturday... we have a plan.” I was intrigued but knew that Aspen would not give anything else up.

Aspen had to leave for work, but I told her she and Kid could come over for presents and cake later that night. After she left, I drove to Noah's house and we hung out until it was time for us to go to dinner with my family.

We went to an Italian restaurant called Buca di Beppo. After we had eaten, we went back to my house and I called Aspen and Kid to tell them we were home. When they got there I opened some presents and we ate cake.

All things considered, it was a pretty mellow day, especially in comparison to what happened the coming weekend, but it was still fun. It was the first time in those last two weeks that I had felt even relatively calm. I'm so thankful to my friends and family who made my birthday enjoyable!

To Be Continued...

Season 4 Step 1 Blog 16: Spring Break 2020

 Spring Break 2020

Spring break 2020 started off normally enough. Marshall and I flew to Colorado to surprise my “sisters” August and Arden who at the time were living together. When Marshall and I flew back into Cleveland at the end of our trip, every college in Ohio was shut down as a result of Covid. When we were about 45 minutes outside of Columbus, Mom texted me. She told me that all of the schools in the state were closed, effective the following Monday, for three weeks. Cool, I thought to myself, three extra weeks of spring break! It wasn't until the end of that first week of lockdown that I realized that it wasn't going to be three weeks.

If I'm being completely honest the lockdown itself didn't bother me. I spent a lot of quality time with family, caught the podcast up to the present day, and went on a lot of walks. The weirdest part was that because Luke and Josh were doing online school I was very aware of the fact that HLC was too. Since I had worked in the after-school program HLC didn't have a job for me at that time. In other words, by the end of the summer, I had been on spring break for about 6 months while everyone else had gone back to school in some capacity.

On August 13, 2020, I was about to clock out for my break at Kroger when I saw Kathy, walking to the doors behind me. “Did you hear?” Kathy asked after I asked how she was.

“Hear what?”

“HLC was purchased by another school called New Story.”

Now I will admit this did cause me to panic a little bit. Once Kathy reassured me that nothing would change (other than eventually the name), I stopped panicking. After I saw Kathy, I thought back to the hockey game event that all HLC staff had been to. More importantly, I thought back to the conversation Addison and I had had about me becoming a teacher's aide.

You should talk to Kathy about that, Addison's voice echoed in my head.

“What should I say?” I replied to her voice, “‘Hey Kathy! It was nice to see you today! I know the world's gone to crap and I'm sure you have a lot on your plate right now, but would you be able to promote me from after school assistant to teacher's aide cuz that would be just swell!’”

I continued to argue with Addison's voice for months on end. However, as my extended spring break continued into the fall of 2020, I realized that enough was enough and it was time for me to take Addison's advice.

On July 12, 2021, I pulled into the New Story parking lot for my “teacher support” training. It was surreal walking back into the school formerly known as Haugland Learning Center. There were honestly a few times where I did not believe I would ever be back there, but I'm glad that I finally am!

Have a Greattastic day and be safe!

J. Mitchie Ulibarri

I would just like to thank all of the Educators who have helped me on my teaching journey so far. First and foremost I would like to thank “Martha Green”, the half-day kindergarten teacher (and eventual principal) at my grade school who helped me to start my teaching career. I would also like to thank all the other teachers at my grade school Including, but not limited to, “Peter Livingston” and “Tom Perkins”. Finally, I would like to thank all of the Ace workers and all HLC/New Story Staff, I couldn't have done it without you and I love you all!