I’m spending the summer in the Denver suburb of Lakewood, Colorado, with a group called Project Impact. We are a group of 30 or so people who all have the same goal this summer – to grow and strengthen as people, and to help out those around us. Because we’re all in college, we’re working full time jobs, and then doing volunteer projects in the evenings and weekends.

My mentor was a Project participant in years past, and she really encouraged me to go. I was a little apprehensive about participating, mostly because I didn’t know what to expect. We have two weeks to find a job that may or may not put a black scar on my crisp white resume? I will be moving in with a group of girls that I may or may not get along with? My family group of girls is going to be paired up with a brother group that may or may not be made up of immature boys?

Two late-night jam sessions, a couple home-cooked meals, and a set of clean dishes later, I’ve become very appreciative of my brother group. One-hundred business inquiries later (this is not an exaggeration), and I’ve been hired as a hostess at Johnny Rockets and Chili’s. Ten days later I can’t imagine not knowing the girls I’m living with. Everyone has been so honest and open; I feel like I’ve known them my whole life. Things that might normally be awkward to do to people you’ve only known for a couple days are totally fine and accepted. Case in point:

Today at work I was looking through various companies’ presentation books–– they were trying to be the ones to help the city “brand” itself. Branding is a marketing technique to get people to recognize and remember what a product, or a city, is. For instance: Scottsdale, Arizona, is known for its high end living, rich horse owners, and expensive local shops. Florence, Arizona, is known for its multiple prisons. Florence is trying to brand itself as one of the most historic cities in Arizona; it claims that it has more historic buildings on the national registry than any other town in Arizona.

Anyways, one portfolio showed a catchy tagline for the White Mountains:

Going to a store to buy plums and coming back with a bag of prunes: not cool. The White Mountains: cool.

At first glance, it seemed okay. But the more I read it, the less sense it made. Plums? I’ve never seen a plum tree in Arizona. We don’t even have plum trees here! Plums don’t have any relevance to Arizona whatsoever. Furthermore, what do plums have to do with the White Mountains? I can’t relate to buying plums and coming back with prunes. I can’t even relate to buying plums or buying prunes. I’m not old and constipated!

I think they should have said:

Phoenix in the summer: not cool. The White Mountains: cool.

This makes sense on two levels because Phoenix is blistering hot in the summer and the White Mountains are up in Northern Arizona in the cool, pine-covered mountains. Also, for the social aspect of the word, it really isn’t cool to be hanging around Phoenix in the summer. That’s just plain stupid. Hanging around the White Mountains is socially acceptable any time of year because there is always something cool to do up there (skiing, snowboarding, hiking, fishing, camping, etc). Even old people with their prunes know that it’s stupid to be in Phoenix in the summer. They go up north.