Giving Life

I cannot compose an essay with enough second grade adjectives--fantastic, awesome, totally fun--to convey to my abundant audience the extent to which I enjoy my job. I am of the lucky few who wake up, albeit exhausted, looking forward to spending a third of my day behind a computer, in a cube. You get it. But do you? The job presents challenges for me to grow both individually and professionally. Allows me to work with people just enough, to the point right before the incompetency has my skin crawling. Has me attending oh-so-important meetings. And knocks each bit of entitlement out of me, leaving me right where I belong.  Enough, enough about my crazy cool contracting job. Unless you are wannabe me for hire in Atlanta, Denver, or Odgen? Then we should continue this conversation elsewhere.  

At the end of the day, circa 5:00 pm government time, my job is not very fulfilling. And I do not think I realized this until I was in the throes of spearheading a blood drive in honor of my neighbor recently diagnosed with osteosarcoma. It should have hit me long along… but did not. This... this feeling is OK, especially for now… since I have this project. I can still love my job. And find satisfaction outside the office. When this blood drive has come and gone, I need to remind myself to take on some volunteering efforts. Maybe I could go work at a puppy shelter? Or read to elders? Or organize another blood drive? I do not know. I will think of something. I might not be making what I consider to be a difference in the workplace but this certainly does not limit me for having a positive impact on the planet and people beyond the office. I can still be the humanitarian I dream of being.

My meeting with a wonderful woman from the American Red Cross put life in perspective for me. While this blood drive effort is a large task, as a not full-time job, it is serving. And I thrive on it. When I send emails/make phone calls to the Red Cross, when I research the pros and cons of a 501(c), when I work with others on a common goal of making the difference in this 11 years old life, I feel something. I cannot pinpoint one emotion. It is an overall 'this is where my passion lies' mental state. This is what I want to be doing. This is who I want to be doing this for.

The goals and ethos I set for myself have not been obliterated. My job is not my life. It is a means to a life. My accomplishments on the job are not my accomplishments in life. 

I will close with a quote by one of my favorite men: "It's easy to make a buck. It's a lot tougher to make a difference." (Tom Brokaw) 

Fall. Friends. Football. Fun.

I traveled to Boston, MA this past weekend for a college reunion of sorts. Clemson Tiger fans travel well, and with college friends littered up and down the East Coast, football season repeatedly brings us back together.

It is good to be amongst people you share a rich history with; hopefully a history that will continue to grow throughout the extent of my life. I have been through chapters that have been far more down than up… with lots of in between. And these people have fingerprints all over my seasons. Being together with them is such a great touchstone to stop and consider how far each one of us has come in our journeys.

I am never thankful enough for these friends, nor do I realize how much I miss them, until we are together again.

As we shared stories of the college days, I was challenged by the memories told I have little recollection of--how events and relationships impact each one of us in unique ways. Times that seemed overwhelming at the time are now nothing more than stories we tell. This comes as a welcomed reminder for the darker times.

My brother quotes Robert Frost in his college essay, “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned from life: It goes on.” And after editing his writing, that quote seemed a fairly certain way to sum up how I got from there to here.