I've somehow found myself in California. Not that I didn't expect to be here - I had the plans in my head since Asia - but with all the thinking I have been doing about my future, sometimes I feel like a walking zombie. I just looked up and here I was! Walking out of my sister's car onto a jasmine-scented street lined in flowering trees and green grass, just one block from a whizzing highway. Yes, LA it is. Does weather ever get this good on the east coast, even on our best days? If it does, it will never feel as good as it does out here. We are missing the chill vibe that makes it sink in.
I am happy to be here. It's not enough of a change to shock you out of your senses like Asia; rather, its just another location from which I will continue to exist, and continue my stream of thinking. Hopefully the thinking will turn to action soon. I am busy researching variety of things. As a backup plan, I may work on a website for a green energy non-profit out here. Volunteering free services is somewhat of an egotistical endeavor I think - the people will always love and appreciate any work you do. You are working for free! But it is great to help people out, and it's always a good learning experience.
Tomorrow I start a 10 day road trip with my three siblings, two boyfriends (one of each sister), and one sister's friend. Should be a hoot. We are hitting all the big national parks that the lucky west coasters seem to know and love: Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Big Sur and other delights. I'll leave you with some words from a Bright Eyes song we played today (which may or may not have anything concrete to say? but somehow still resonates traveling):
Well I'm changing all my strings
I'm gonna write another travelin' song
about all the billion highways
and the cities at the break of dawn
I guess the best that I can do now
is to pretend that I've done nothing wrong
and to dream about a train
that's gonna take me back where I belong
Well now the ocean speaks and spits
and I can hear it from the interstate
and I'm screamin' at my brother on a cellphone
he is far away
And I'm saying nothing in the past or future
ever will feel like today
until we're parking in an alley
just hoping that our shit is safe
So I go back and forth forever
All my thoughts they come in pairs
Oh I will, I won't, I doubt, I don't,
I'm not surprised but I never feel quite prepared
Friday, May 22, 2009
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Options
I started volunteering during the day at City Harvest...doing, brace yourself, technology. Yup, I'm back in the tech world for the next few weeks. But working for a non-profit is SO much more rewarding. The tech life doesn't look so bad from this angle, although I am being cautious :) The mission of City Harvest is to rescue food from restaurants, groceries and deliver it to food pantries and other places of need. It's a good experience to see what it's like in non-profit environment, make connections, and generally see what's out there.
I am helping them with their Access database. I realized that, while I worked/suffered for 5 years, at least I now have some skills and can add real value to an organization. It's hard to believe many people don't know how to do pivot tables in Excel or don't know how to look at their data in Access, which is a relatively user-friendly (if archaic) program. However, I don't blame them - it's not as if I ever learned it in any class. I learned at work. But being comfortable with your data is so important, to be able to converse with it in lots of ways to get the information you need. (Maybe I need to start a company: Data Literacy for Non-Profits?) Anyway, so it's been fun to get my head working again and to be helping out.
In the meantime, I am still thinking about the big question: what next. The answers range from:
- Working at a non-profit, in a desk job basically, or volunteering or interning at one for a short period...could be boring? Is it impactful enough?
- Hands-on volunteering or field work job. Something like Peace Corps, but not as long of a commitment (6 months would be good)
- Starting my own non-profit (or socially conscious for-profit)....the most challenging route
Ex of a cool non-profit: Hot Bread Kitchen - they hire immigrant woman to bake the breads that are native to their homelands and then sell the breads (finding a market for skills)
Ex of a cool for-profit: Tom's Shoes - everyone has probably heard of them now...the guy donates a pair of shoes to poor people for every pair bought.
Intersecting with these options are the fields I could be working in....aka, what kind of help? I've always been interested in food issues: agriculture, healthy, environment effects, etc. Not necessarily separate from food issues, I am also interested in economic development and education and/or types of solutions that last and have a healthy fit into the larger system.
Next move is to start looking into these options further and talk to people who have taken these route. (Anyone have good contacts?)
I am helping them with their Access database. I realized that, while I worked/suffered for 5 years, at least I now have some skills and can add real value to an organization. It's hard to believe many people don't know how to do pivot tables in Excel or don't know how to look at their data in Access, which is a relatively user-friendly (if archaic) program. However, I don't blame them - it's not as if I ever learned it in any class. I learned at work. But being comfortable with your data is so important, to be able to converse with it in lots of ways to get the information you need. (Maybe I need to start a company: Data Literacy for Non-Profits?) Anyway, so it's been fun to get my head working again and to be helping out.
In the meantime, I am still thinking about the big question: what next. The answers range from:
- Working at a non-profit, in a desk job basically, or volunteering or interning at one for a short period...could be boring? Is it impactful enough?
- Hands-on volunteering or field work job. Something like Peace Corps, but not as long of a commitment (6 months would be good)
- Starting my own non-profit (or socially conscious for-profit)....the most challenging route
Ex of a cool non-profit: Hot Bread Kitchen - they hire immigrant woman to bake the breads that are native to their homelands and then sell the breads (finding a market for skills)
Ex of a cool for-profit: Tom's Shoes - everyone has probably heard of them now...the guy donates a pair of shoes to poor people for every pair bought.
Intersecting with these options are the fields I could be working in....aka, what kind of help? I've always been interested in food issues: agriculture, healthy, environment effects, etc. Not necessarily separate from food issues, I am also interested in economic development and education and/or types of solutions that last and have a healthy fit into the larger system.
Next move is to start looking into these options further and talk to people who have taken these route. (Anyone have good contacts?)
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