Last week I went to Camp WIOA. We woke up early at the first light of dawn, and after making up our bedrolls we’d go down to the canteen for a big, hearty breakfast of stacks of hot buttermilk flapjacks with pure maple syrup, and bowls of sweet fresh fruit including juicy peaches and plump blackberries and raspberries with cream.

Then we’d scurry off to the black rocks placed in a big circle. We’d sit there with the warm morning sun tanning  the backs of our necks and the tops of our feet as we discussed the concepts we’d learned the day before, while we fashioned sticks, twigs, thin straps of leather, feathers and beads into Native American Dream Catchers.

By mid morning we’d stop working on our crafts for study time and before lunch we’d play team sports. After lunch, everyone retreated to the bunk houses for quiet reflection or naps before afternoon swim.

OK. There’s no such place as Camp WIOA and I didn’t go there last week. But I wish I had been there.

What I actually did was attend a conference in Atlanta regarding the newly reauthorized federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).  4,153 pages of legislation.  It was at your typical conference center where the chairs were a little too straight and a lot too hard. The meeting rooms were very chilly to ward off Leggionaires’ disease.  The black curtains blocked out every spot of sunlight so you didn’t know whether it was day or night. The passageways were huge and vast and there was no where to sit down in between.  The carpet designs were gigantic and hideous.  Lunches consisted of the usual…chicken and green beans.

Now, WIOA funds a lot of good stuff and so I’m not sorry I was there and it was important to my work in higher education. But doesn’t it sound more fun the way I first described it? Hey, a girl can dream, can’t she?

So, what did you do last week? Or if you insist, what happened at work?

dmzh