From Rita's final chapter of Tales of a Female Nomad :
"I'm not thinking about the future. While I'm here, wherever that may be (at the moment, its the library in New York), I want to be 100 percent here. One of the most important things I have learned during the past 15 years is how to enjoy and savor the present. When I am writing, I am inside the sound a meaning of the words, playing with them, curving them around each other. When I am eating, I luxuriate in the taste and texture of every bite. When I am alone, I listen to and communicate with the silence within me and the noises and messages of the world around me. And when I am with people, I am really with them."
I believe I have a long way to go to really grasp this concept of living in the present, but it is reassuring that a new friend has a strong-hold on its essence. And I have to admit, when I met Rita the other night - I was very in the present.
The woman I followed around the world in Tales of a Female Nomad is just as passionate and generous in person as she is her book. We met to discuss how I could help with Let's Get Global at her home in D.C. We cooked dinner together - savoring the freshness of the vegetables and herbs contained in Vietnamese Soft Spring Rolls, marveling in the smell and taste of "Chicken cooked in a Thai way" and indulging in Ben and Jerry's coffee heath bar crunch to finish. (Michael, I believe I have met someone who loves food just as much as we do!)
Today I began to research foundations (during my lunch hour) that could be interested in providing us with funding for our movement to encourage kids to take a year off between high school and college to travel abroad. I can't get enough of this research! The possibilities seem endless, along with the possible funds!
I believe truly being present in the present comes a long with doing something you love. And of course being with those you love. What often distracts me from being truly "here" is when I feel far from my dream lifestyle or far from the ones I love. I'll keep Rita's insights in my mind this summer as I work to be more in the present, ignoring "possibilities" and instead focusing on this project (when I'm not in my cubicle wishing I could be working on it).
Simone, I don't know if this offered you any insight on wishing you were somewhere else. We all miss you but I will certainly see you again in August:-) And we can start working on great projects again together with ROTARACT!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
This Summer
What a debacle. What a roller-coaster ride...my spring semester 2010. As many of you know (I figured all my readers right now are friends!), I was accepted into the Penn State College of Communications Washington Program back in October 2009. I had an interview about where I wanted to be placed and talked about how I wanted to be a journalist, but I also would love to work for a passionate, world-changing non-profit or organization.
I have a bug for both of these possible professions. I remember getting calls from our coordinator asking whether or not he should send my resume and clippings to a non-profit fighting aids in Africa. I felt that it was necessary I decline to get that "vital" journalistic experience. So that's what I did.
When the new year rolled around, I found out I had been accepted into the Schreyer International Service Project heading to India this summer...Oh, how I wanted to go. I joined the class thinking I could go both to DC and then head to India at the end of the summer. I thought wrong. I had to choose. It was devastating and I didn't know if I was truly doing what I wanted to.
It turns out I can go to India with next year's group, post-graduation. But, here I am in DC for a reason, right?
I was asking myself that a lot, but the other morning as I was on the Megabus! home to Philadelphia, a lady named Cathy made me a twitter account. I looked up a favorite author of mine named Rita Golden Gelman and there she was! A writer embodying in her projects similar passions as mine - for humanity - and her current location is Washington, D.C.
I googled her, I found her on facebook and I just e-mailed her...asking if I could help with her current project called Let's Get Global and the recent release of her newest book, Female Nomad and Friends - all profits are going to help get children living in slums in India into vocational schools (via a Rotary program!).
Perhaps by fate, I was brought to DC. And that possibility that I will be the writer, traveler and lover I imagine will come true. Rita Golden Gelman - please let me help!
I'll keep you all posted on our correspondence and in the meantime check out her new book, I'm going to get my hands on a copy ASAP.
I have a bug for both of these possible professions. I remember getting calls from our coordinator asking whether or not he should send my resume and clippings to a non-profit fighting aids in Africa. I felt that it was necessary I decline to get that "vital" journalistic experience. So that's what I did.
When the new year rolled around, I found out I had been accepted into the Schreyer International Service Project heading to India this summer...Oh, how I wanted to go. I joined the class thinking I could go both to DC and then head to India at the end of the summer. I thought wrong. I had to choose. It was devastating and I didn't know if I was truly doing what I wanted to.
It turns out I can go to India with next year's group, post-graduation. But, here I am in DC for a reason, right?
I was asking myself that a lot, but the other morning as I was on the Megabus! home to Philadelphia, a lady named Cathy made me a twitter account. I looked up a favorite author of mine named Rita Golden Gelman and there she was! A writer embodying in her projects similar passions as mine - for humanity - and her current location is Washington, D.C.
I googled her, I found her on facebook and I just e-mailed her...asking if I could help with her current project called Let's Get Global and the recent release of her newest book, Female Nomad and Friends - all profits are going to help get children living in slums in India into vocational schools (via a Rotary program!).
Perhaps by fate, I was brought to DC. And that possibility that I will be the writer, traveler and lover I imagine will come true. Rita Golden Gelman - please let me help!
I'll keep you all posted on our correspondence and in the meantime check out her new book, I'm going to get my hands on a copy ASAP.
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Contending with Possibilities
First of all, I’d like to thank Meg McGinty for introducing me to Blogspot(check out her blog “Invigorate the Ordinary”)...it took me two months to garner the courage to write this first entry. If you know me, you know I’m neurotic, in the oddest sense of the word. I’m a bit of a perfectionist, and writing and publishing this blog with MY NAME on it, frightened me tremendously. But here I am, and I’d like to explain why.
Over the past few months, I’ve shifted from embracing all the opportunities and experiences my college education continues to offer me and become defensive – desperately trying to hold on to my dreams. Let me define those for you: I want to be a journalist. I want to be a traveling, story-telling journalist. I want to see the world and embrace people of all walks of life. I want to fight for them. I want to tell their stories. And above all, through these stories I want to help the world to become a more compassionate, understanding whole – together mending all injustices.
I know. It’s a bit ambitious, but those dreams ultimately drive me and I’m worried they are slipping out of my reach. I don’t want to get lost in the shuffle. I’m lucky to have so many opportunities continuously permeating my realm, but they have required me to make difficult decisions. What should I do? What do professional journalists recommend I do? Is this really the path I want to start treading down? So many choices! I feel as though I’m continuously contending with possibilities.
I’d like to take you on this journey, but I have to warn you it will get pretty rocky at times. I may get down to the menial choices such as which metro to take, whether or not to eat another cookie; but I’ll also rant and rave and advocate ways to not lose sight of your dreams. Hopefully, at the end of all of this, I’ll succeed and some of these dreams will come into fruition.
I sure hope not all of you are as frightened as me of your dreams just withering away…
My inspiration for the summer (printed on the cover a beautiful diary Michael Mercuri and I found in “The Islander” on the Ocean City, NJ boardwalk):
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” - Eleanor Roosevelt
Over the past few months, I’ve shifted from embracing all the opportunities and experiences my college education continues to offer me and become defensive – desperately trying to hold on to my dreams. Let me define those for you: I want to be a journalist. I want to be a traveling, story-telling journalist. I want to see the world and embrace people of all walks of life. I want to fight for them. I want to tell their stories. And above all, through these stories I want to help the world to become a more compassionate, understanding whole – together mending all injustices.
I know. It’s a bit ambitious, but those dreams ultimately drive me and I’m worried they are slipping out of my reach. I don’t want to get lost in the shuffle. I’m lucky to have so many opportunities continuously permeating my realm, but they have required me to make difficult decisions. What should I do? What do professional journalists recommend I do? Is this really the path I want to start treading down? So many choices! I feel as though I’m continuously contending with possibilities.
I’d like to take you on this journey, but I have to warn you it will get pretty rocky at times. I may get down to the menial choices such as which metro to take, whether or not to eat another cookie; but I’ll also rant and rave and advocate ways to not lose sight of your dreams. Hopefully, at the end of all of this, I’ll succeed and some of these dreams will come into fruition.
I sure hope not all of you are as frightened as me of your dreams just withering away…
My inspiration for the summer (printed on the cover a beautiful diary Michael Mercuri and I found in “The Islander” on the Ocean City, NJ boardwalk):
“The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.” - Eleanor Roosevelt
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