The Studio

A quarter of a century. Halfway through the most productive years of my life. Naturally, as I watched these milestones approaching, I gave a lot of serious thought about the person I wanted to be when I grew up. Who did I want to be? How close was I to being this person? What was I doing to become this person?

The answers were not immediately obvious...
I want to be a bad ass, someone who's really good at what they do -- someone who is sought out. I want to be someone who's going to have awesome stories to tell her grandchildren -- experiences that my grandkids will aspire to. I want to make a difference in this world -- someone who's going to leave a footprint.

I've been spending a lot of time lately with several non-profit organizations. It's something that has been a big part of my life but that has been missing for a couple years. I always feel a little restless when I haven't served for a long time. Getting re-involved is a good step, but I can't say I've found my community service niche here in the bay area -- the organizations I'm currently involved with are either too niche or too general. They just don't feel like the right fit. There's also the added challenge that there aren't a lot of people my age at the service events I've attended, and there's not a lot of repeat interactions. Basically it boils down to this: it's much easier to feel a part of an organization or be excited about community service when it feels like a group of friends getting together working towards a common goal.

In Houston, I had really good friends at the hospital and everyone was of my age and super enthusiastic. VCSA had a core group of volunteers whom you met or volunteered with frequently, and who formed friendships outside of the organization. I miss going to volunteer events and getting to see a bunch of friends and familiar faces. Hands On just feels too large, and BUILD just too small. I should talk to Melissa about One Brick.

At any rate, the thought that I have been most pre-occupied with is the Accenture Development Partnership (ADP) program. ADP is a program where Accenture employees give up half of their salary to go do consulting work in their world countries. "Consulting" is a very loose term in this case, it can be as simple as managing a project. Past countries where ADP has been involved include Viet Nam, India, Uganda, Bangladesh, Kenya, the list just goes on. I will more than likely applying next year. I'm super excited about the opportunity, just hope that I will get chosen to go. It's sort of a once in a lifetime opportunity do go experience a different culture and work on something that you can be really proud of. I won't always be able to be this free of responsibilities or free of ties (at least not for much longer I hope).

So, keep your fingers crossed for me!! Yes, this does derail the plans to buy a house a bit, but like I said, this is a once in a lifetime opportunity -- I can buy a house any time.

Oh yes, and I recently filed amendments to my articles of incorporation and bylaws to expand the purpose of my scholarship foundation, so hopefully Huy and I will be able to grow foundation in the near future. Wish us luck, and let me know if you'd like to help! ;-)

Me and all my friends
We're all misunderstood
They say we stand for nothing and
There's no way we ever could
Now we see everything is going wrong
With the world and those who lead it
We just feel like we don't have the means
To rise above and beat it

So we keep waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
It’s hard to beat the system
When we're standing at a distance
So we keep waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change

Now if we had the power
To bring our neighbors home from war
They would have never missed a Christmas
No more ribbons on their door
When you trust your television
What you get is what you got
‘Cuz’ when they own the information ooohhh,
They can bend it all they want

So while we're waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
It's not that we don't care
We just know that the pot ain't fair
So we keep waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change

We're still waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
One day our generation
Is gonna rule the population

So we keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
Know we keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
We keep on waiting (waiting)
Waiting on the world to change
Waiting on the world to change