For the last, oh, 8 years I have felt the particularly strong need to find out what my purpose in life is. What should I do for a career? What should I dedicate that third of my life to? What am I best at? How can I use those skills (whatever they may be) to my advantage?
Before I left Seattle, I started a series of conversations. Well, I meant to start a series, but it's quite possible that I only got one. In fact I remember only one, so strike that series (even if that's what I had intended!). While part of the Achievers Alumni Association board, I realized what an amazing group of people we alums had access to--the board of the College Success Foundation. Here was a group of successful professionals who were making a difference in the world, and in fact had made a huge difference in our worlds. One of their main strategies in making a difference was mentoring, so who better to look to for advice than them?
So I arranged a lunch with the Vice Chair of the board (and one of my bosses at the time) and invited all of our alumni board to attend as well. The purpose? To have a chat with this amazing lady about her life, her career path and what kind of advice she would pass on to those who were just starting the transition into "real life". She told us about many of the different jobs she had had through the years, from social worker for over 100 children to television manager to director of budgets at Harvard to White House fellow to founding chairman of a theatre company...this lady has been all over the place. What a non-linear path, and certainly very different from what we had all expected, I think. I speak mostly for myself, though I do think most of our generation feels this way. I feel like I should know already what I'm supposed to be doing and be well on my career path by now. I'm 27, nearly 28 and I'm working in fundraising at a theatre company in Australia. I never would have expected to find myself here, yet it seems this is where life has led me.
Which brings me to another point, should I be flowing through life or should I be taking life by the horns and telling it how and where I should be? So confused.
Here's my most basic thought--I should be working in a field that helps people. That's a mission being fulfilled in my current position, though they're not exactly the people most in need or the people I thought I'd be helping.
Which brings me to my next thought--I want to be helping the people most in need. When I think of the people most in need, I think of people in the developing world. Living in poverty, often not having access to clean drinking water or having enough food to eat. Certainly not having access to hospitals. Women. Children.
So--I should work for an international aid organization! Great idea, I love it! But who's actually doing good work? So many of the aid organizations out there mismanage funds. They spend way too much on administration and overhead, then the money that actually does make its way into the developing world tends to get lost...who knows where? Where's the impact? Where's the truth and honesty? Who are these people that spend so much on fundraising and so little on actually helping the people they profess to help? Disappointing, people!
Let's say I find a good company to work for. What should I do? What part of that business do I fit into? Thus far, my experience is administration and fundraising. I don't want to be a fundraiser, it makes me feel like a salesman. I also don't want to be scheduling calendars for the rest of my life.
Grad school has also been calling my name for the last three years or so, and I haven't quite been able to commit to a program that sits well with my gut. I applied for a Peace and Conflict Resolution program last year, but it was at the same time I got this current job which required lots of nights and weekend work. I wasn't sure if I'd have the time or the gusto, so I left the last piece of my admissions application remain in my hands--not theirs.
I do feel a great desire to learn more. To be back in a classroom, being accountable to someone for my work and for my learning. So grad school. There's a good international studies program back at UW. I plan to be back in Seattle in less than two years. So I should take the GRE now and be at the ready to apply and kick ass when I get back.
Funny thing. The instigation for this post was a different international development thought. What's the best way to pull a person/family/community/country out of poverty? And why does the developed world always think their approach is best? Wouldn't it really be best to form a collaborative approach? Is this already what people do and I just don't know about? I feel like the people being helped would need to feel empowered. Not patronized. They would need to feel like they had a hand in their direction, in the changes being made in their world. Change needs to be both sustainable and positive. And we don't want people to lose their culture and be like us. What if there was a program that worked both ways. What if we said, "We have knowledge we'd like to impart to you, but we also think there's knowledge you could impart to us." Whenever you read anything about the Peace Corps, you always hear that volunteers feel like they got so much more out of the program than what they impart. I used to hate reading that and thought that I would be a person who would change that, that I would leave a bigger difference than what other people would make on me. That's a bit of a selfish thought, though I really do want to make change...but it's patronizing to think we can land in people's lives and totally change everything around. What if people like their lives? What if they're happier the way they're living than the way we live? There must be a way to even the score. I don't deserve to go spend $200 on a pair of shoes (that I don't need) while other people don't even own a pair of shoes. I don't deserve to drink bottled water because I'm too lazy to find a tap, while other people drink and bathe in filthy, muddy, sewage water. Who are we in the developed world with our sense of entitlement? Yes, we work. Some of us even work hard. (I cannot currently include myself in this category.) But we can't help where we were born. We were somehow lucky enough to end up with these lives. But with advantage comes responsibility. We have a responsibility to everyone else in the world. To be courteous, to be kind, and to not use up more than our fair share. I am conflicted every time I walk into a store. Most of what I buy I don't actually need. Those shoes. That shirt. While socially they make me feel more comfortable in my environment, they don't change my life. These new things impart a few minutes of happiness, and then they become like all the rest. The same. Unnecessary. Just another thing in my closet. Or my kitchen. Or my belly. It's hard to live in this consumer-driven society and not buy things. Social pressure all around. I live well within reason, compared to the rest of the society I live in, but compared to the rest of the world? I still disgust myself.
I want to find a way to even the score. I think some day I will make a change. And maybe the first way I do this is by helping to contribute to an old acquaintance's brain tumor operation in Peru. Because the money I send to her? Would otherwise get used up on a coffee date or a night out or a foray into the markets. Or spent on a martial arts class. Whatever it gets spent on, she actually needs it. I don't.
Which leads me to a last rant. Australia's National Budget plan was released by the Treasurer last week. There was all kinds of backlash from the middle class about having to pay $1k more in taxes (or something of the sort). Families who earn $150k per year were prancing about claiming their lives were hard and it was so difficult to make ends meet. Um, I have earned less than a third of that per year for the last...I don't know, EVER! I lead a priviledged life! I go on a trip overseas once or twice a year. I go out to eat at least once a week. I can afford to buy coffee in the morning (though I don't--I buy boxes of tea!). I can afford to rent a lovely one bedroom apartment in one of the best suburbs in the city. These people make me absolutely filthy, claiming that their lives are hard. I only wish they had a bit of perspective! I don't like guilting people--it's a negative way to solicit emotion (or money for that matter). Facts. Facts are much more effective (to a person like me). Comparisons. Empathy.
Again. One day. One day I hope to have made positive change in this world. Other than by being a positive person and having a positive impact on the people in my life. Yes, I do work for that and I want to be that person, too. But I want change on a bigger scale. In partnership with other people to make an even bigger change. It's possible.
Before I left Seattle, I started a series of conversations. Well, I meant to start a series, but it's quite possible that I only got one. In fact I remember only one, so strike that series (even if that's what I had intended!). While part of the Achievers Alumni Association board, I realized what an amazing group of people we alums had access to--the board of the College Success Foundation. Here was a group of successful professionals who were making a difference in the world, and in fact had made a huge difference in our worlds. One of their main strategies in making a difference was mentoring, so who better to look to for advice than them?
So I arranged a lunch with the Vice Chair of the board (and one of my bosses at the time) and invited all of our alumni board to attend as well. The purpose? To have a chat with this amazing lady about her life, her career path and what kind of advice she would pass on to those who were just starting the transition into "real life". She told us about many of the different jobs she had had through the years, from social worker for over 100 children to television manager to director of budgets at Harvard to White House fellow to founding chairman of a theatre company...this lady has been all over the place. What a non-linear path, and certainly very different from what we had all expected, I think. I speak mostly for myself, though I do think most of our generation feels this way. I feel like I should know already what I'm supposed to be doing and be well on my career path by now. I'm 27, nearly 28 and I'm working in fundraising at a theatre company in Australia. I never would have expected to find myself here, yet it seems this is where life has led me.
Which brings me to another point, should I be flowing through life or should I be taking life by the horns and telling it how and where I should be? So confused.
Here's my most basic thought--I should be working in a field that helps people. That's a mission being fulfilled in my current position, though they're not exactly the people most in need or the people I thought I'd be helping.
Which brings me to my next thought--I want to be helping the people most in need. When I think of the people most in need, I think of people in the developing world. Living in poverty, often not having access to clean drinking water or having enough food to eat. Certainly not having access to hospitals. Women. Children.
So--I should work for an international aid organization! Great idea, I love it! But who's actually doing good work? So many of the aid organizations out there mismanage funds. They spend way too much on administration and overhead, then the money that actually does make its way into the developing world tends to get lost...who knows where? Where's the impact? Where's the truth and honesty? Who are these people that spend so much on fundraising and so little on actually helping the people they profess to help? Disappointing, people!
Let's say I find a good company to work for. What should I do? What part of that business do I fit into? Thus far, my experience is administration and fundraising. I don't want to be a fundraiser, it makes me feel like a salesman. I also don't want to be scheduling calendars for the rest of my life.
Grad school has also been calling my name for the last three years or so, and I haven't quite been able to commit to a program that sits well with my gut. I applied for a Peace and Conflict Resolution program last year, but it was at the same time I got this current job which required lots of nights and weekend work. I wasn't sure if I'd have the time or the gusto, so I left the last piece of my admissions application remain in my hands--not theirs.
I do feel a great desire to learn more. To be back in a classroom, being accountable to someone for my work and for my learning. So grad school. There's a good international studies program back at UW. I plan to be back in Seattle in less than two years. So I should take the GRE now and be at the ready to apply and kick ass when I get back.
Funny thing. The instigation for this post was a different international development thought. What's the best way to pull a person/family/community/country out of poverty? And why does the developed world always think their approach is best? Wouldn't it really be best to form a collaborative approach? Is this already what people do and I just don't know about? I feel like the people being helped would need to feel empowered. Not patronized. They would need to feel like they had a hand in their direction, in the changes being made in their world. Change needs to be both sustainable and positive. And we don't want people to lose their culture and be like us. What if there was a program that worked both ways. What if we said, "We have knowledge we'd like to impart to you, but we also think there's knowledge you could impart to us." Whenever you read anything about the Peace Corps, you always hear that volunteers feel like they got so much more out of the program than what they impart. I used to hate reading that and thought that I would be a person who would change that, that I would leave a bigger difference than what other people would make on me. That's a bit of a selfish thought, though I really do want to make change...but it's patronizing to think we can land in people's lives and totally change everything around. What if people like their lives? What if they're happier the way they're living than the way we live? There must be a way to even the score. I don't deserve to go spend $200 on a pair of shoes (that I don't need) while other people don't even own a pair of shoes. I don't deserve to drink bottled water because I'm too lazy to find a tap, while other people drink and bathe in filthy, muddy, sewage water. Who are we in the developed world with our sense of entitlement? Yes, we work. Some of us even work hard. (I cannot currently include myself in this category.) But we can't help where we were born. We were somehow lucky enough to end up with these lives. But with advantage comes responsibility. We have a responsibility to everyone else in the world. To be courteous, to be kind, and to not use up more than our fair share. I am conflicted every time I walk into a store. Most of what I buy I don't actually need. Those shoes. That shirt. While socially they make me feel more comfortable in my environment, they don't change my life. These new things impart a few minutes of happiness, and then they become like all the rest. The same. Unnecessary. Just another thing in my closet. Or my kitchen. Or my belly. It's hard to live in this consumer-driven society and not buy things. Social pressure all around. I live well within reason, compared to the rest of the society I live in, but compared to the rest of the world? I still disgust myself.
I want to find a way to even the score. I think some day I will make a change. And maybe the first way I do this is by helping to contribute to an old acquaintance's brain tumor operation in Peru. Because the money I send to her? Would otherwise get used up on a coffee date or a night out or a foray into the markets. Or spent on a martial arts class. Whatever it gets spent on, she actually needs it. I don't.
Which leads me to a last rant. Australia's National Budget plan was released by the Treasurer last week. There was all kinds of backlash from the middle class about having to pay $1k more in taxes (or something of the sort). Families who earn $150k per year were prancing about claiming their lives were hard and it was so difficult to make ends meet. Um, I have earned less than a third of that per year for the last...I don't know, EVER! I lead a priviledged life! I go on a trip overseas once or twice a year. I go out to eat at least once a week. I can afford to buy coffee in the morning (though I don't--I buy boxes of tea!). I can afford to rent a lovely one bedroom apartment in one of the best suburbs in the city. These people make me absolutely filthy, claiming that their lives are hard. I only wish they had a bit of perspective! I don't like guilting people--it's a negative way to solicit emotion (or money for that matter). Facts. Facts are much more effective (to a person like me). Comparisons. Empathy.
Again. One day. One day I hope to have made positive change in this world. Other than by being a positive person and having a positive impact on the people in my life. Yes, I do work for that and I want to be that person, too. But I want change on a bigger scale. In partnership with other people to make an even bigger change. It's possible.
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