My mission. The Office. The Life

                                   

 Fall 2008, Schools 4 Schools begins, Invisible Children, its values, missions, all adopted by me. I never knew such a great thing could come from sacrifice and a lot of hard work. S4S (Schools 4 Schools) was my life for 100 days. I helped plan and execute fundraisers from concerts to custom bracelets selling, even working the lunchtime snack sales table at my own high school. These things are pretty much what I was putting myself into that trimester of the year. The money raised had all gone to people I have never met and possibly never will. I thought why should it matter that they are completely different and alien compared to my world. Then one day I made the decision to put more of myself to the non- profit/ social justice community, sooo I applied to be a Roadie for IC. Best damn choice of my life. As a Roadie I will be trained, mentally beaten, and most of all become immersed into as I said before the Social justice community. As one of the five important rules of IC, “jump first, fear later,” I followed my heart and jumped first. This is what I want to do and truthfully I do not know what lies ahead in the distance but I do know the possibilities are endless, but beautiful.       

 

            To be accepted by Invisible Children, as an intern to work alongside such amazing people is a privilege and an accomplishment well above anything I have ever done. I don’t know about anyone else but I personally do not take this job lightly in any way. I think it is normal to have a fear or skepticism before actually experiencing the content of the subject. Well, boy was I wrong about that judgment. All 60 Roadies and 11 interns arrived at the IC office in San Diego Ca at 9:00 AM on August 5, 2009, with shaky knees and racing hearts. All of us, the new lifeblood of the company, were about receive the privilege to be introduced to such great people and be soon be branded and named as IC property. That day was so short as I remember. The time slipped as though the more I loved the moment the quicker it flew by. And as soon as we arrived, we left, with homework, and information stuffed into our brains like trash compactors. But I still felt a bit conflicted; I really wanted to know how much of a legit company this was. 12 hours later I pretty much got the answer I was looking for thrown at me so to speak. The next training session revealed every single bit of information regarding overhead spending, on the ground implementation, everything… I almost felt ashamed to have questioned this program in any way. I will always trust IC and the staff empowering the movement for the rest of my time here.

            Seriously every staff member at the office could be flagged as a person you always look up to. I see the devotion and love from them everyday, I feel motivated just from there actions on a daily basis. To see sacrifice, love, and emotion put into this kind of venue by people who enjoy it just as much as I do can be overexciting at some points. For example Ben Keesey the CEO of Invisible Children was offered a high high paying job @ a different company, but he chose to support this cause because he cared. He sacrificed an easier life of riches and fortune for a life of struggle, uncertainty, and near minimum waging. Sacrifice, hard work, and determination are just some of the values IC spreads.

            After only working in the office for four days I can really say I have lost count of the great talks some of the staff have came up with and shared. Its not that they weren’t good because that’s exactly the opposite, they were amazing, but too freaking many. I do recall one of the best speeches given by our Mission manager Margie Dillenburg, one of the oldest and wisest of our staff (recognize how she is only 30). The topic of her subject was the use and misuse of the word passionate. Quickly all of my fellow team members and I quickly know to not so much as whisper this word around her for fear of lashings. Her argument was that the passionate feeling is overused accidently to explain the short-term bursts of pride that make a person bigheaded about their accomplishments. The term she wants us all to include into our vocabulary is, “The Deeper Yes”. The ability to say yes and participate in something you know might be impossible.

            Even so far in the past couple days I have learned very much but I won't be able to t touch right now. Thanks for reading, I really appreciate it and I will talk to you later :]