transitions in a land of confusion
I have to say that starting this blog and maintaining it has catalogued some of the better experiences in my short life as well as opened many new and exciting opportunities. And so it is with great pleasure that I am making an effort to renew my writing passion and zeal to write down my experiences and thoughts, perhaps someday to write a book? who knows. . . Is this a new year's resolution of sorts, maybe, but I am not resolving to do anything. Writing is a creative and organic process, so I won't place any restrictions or expectations, just to start writing again when the mood hits me. I used to use writing as a release: from stress, from the insanity of the real world, from my mind's own prison. . .
My writing really took a downward spiral in and after my three-month internship in South Africa. Access to the internet was limited, I continued to journal almost daily, but maintaining this blog was just not possible with the work I was doing. It was a long and difficult summer full of rewarding, but intense experiences. Returning to the states, getting back into the blog only became a burden as I worked to adjust and get back into the swing of life in the US as my last year of college loomed.
That year finally happened with attempts to get back into writing, most were short lived. As I feared the most, I was one class short of graduating! I walked for the ceremony, but thankfully could utilize the summer months to complete an independent study and officially receive a degree. Bachelors of Arts (international relations & global area studies: Africa with a specialization in international development) in hand really started focusing, harder than before, on finding a paying gig in the real world. My plan was to find something that (#1) paid, (#2) was in Michigan, and (#3) didn't make me compromise my morals. My goals were to give back to the great state of Michigan, remain in close proximity to the staff of my fledgling organization, and spend more time with the people I love.
It all happened to work out when I was hired at buildOn, a non-profit organization with the primary goal of building schools in other countries to fight illiteracy and bring education to children all over the world. The organization does this through after school programs at high schools in Michigan's urban hubs (Detroit, Dearborn, Pontiac) where students voluntarily learn about global issues, give back to their own communities through service, and raise money to sponsor schools in Nicaragua, Mali, and Malawi. Since August 5th 2009, I've been working this great opportunity straight out of undergraduate studies that allows me to follow all the criteria I had set for myself.
I now live in Detroit (more to come on that later), own a car, get a big boy salary with benefits, and am still running my own non-profit in my free time, SCOUT BANANA. On top of all of these life developments I will be starting a Masters in Social Justice program this month at Marygrove College in Detroit, two minutes down the road from the house I now live in. They have an incredible history of acting outside the norm, radically focusing on helping people, and pursuing scholarly activism that promotes social justice. I am excited to get started in their 7th Cohort of students!
It has been a time of many transitions. Some easy, some not so easy, but all have been successful with a good dose of confusion, flexibility, and an amazing girlfriend who has made everything much easier! Be on the lookout for some more blog posts to close out my South African experience in the Summer of 2008, some of my non-expert opinions on Detroit, and some more generally interesting thoughts on the coming year. Everyone has predictions, so why not throw some more out there? I will also be headed to remote Nicaragua in early February with a group of buildOn students to build a school, so there is definitely some great experiences to come!
