So, life is good! It's amazing how happy I am here. I think it's a combination of things-- it's so nice to be around normal people, as a group they are probably the nicest people I have ever met, I'm really happy with our apartment and the complex as a whole, my job really couldn't be any better...
And I'm finally starting to volunteer instead of just talking about it or reading about it. Did anyone see Oprah last week when Bill Clinton was on there? (Quite possibly my 2 favorite people in the world.) Well, Bill just wrote a new book called "Giving." Of course I went and got about 2 hours after watching the show. In the book he talks about all these ways you can give--he breaks it down by chapter if you want to give money, give your time, give a skill. He tells about all these organizations that have been proven to be really great ones to give to or copycat. At the end of the book there are all the websites for the places so you can find them. What I really loved about the book is that he was just trying to say, no matter how little you can give, it WILL make a difference. That's something I have struggled with a little and has probably kept me from volunteering sooner, I have this 'go big or don't go at all' mentality and you can't always go big! It helped when I was raising money last year for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, I really saw how even the littlest amount ended up helping me out so much. Those little amounts really do add up.
One of the organizations featured on the show & in the book was Kiva.org. Basically you can go on there and pick someone who needs a small loan to get their business going, once you donate you can watch their business grow. It's amazing how little some of these people need to really make a difference in their lives. So, last night I went to the website, and guess what? After being in the book and on Oprah, all the loans had been fulfilled!!! Kiva is now working to find more small businesses who need help. I can only imagine how much all the other organizations will benefit just from getting exposure. Pretty amazing.
So of course, I'm going to tell you to check out the book. That saying "Many hands makes light work" comes to mind. If everyone gave just a little it would a HUGE difference. I'm trying!!
Ok, enough about that. I'm also really excited because I found a masters program that I would love to go into. Yes, I just started my bachelor's but there is nothing wrong with thinking ahead. And, keep in mind, I change my mind pretty frequently...but anyway, there are 2 degrees I saw, international development or public service. I've been saying for about 6 months to year I guess that it's be awesome to get into international development or crisis relief-- meaning working with third world countries to help develop or working with people after a natural disaster or something like that. I just didn't know there were actual degrees for it, I just sat here always thinking, how the hell do you get into that stuff? So, my volunteering I'm starting and my trip to Africa will hopefully really help me see if that's what I really want to do, although I can't imagine why I wouldn't...we'll see :)
Other than that stuff not much going on. Busy with classes, although I just started a new class and it is MUCH better, not nearly the amount of work needed. We're in a bowling league with a couple neighbors and that is always something to look forward to. Pretty much every weekend we're grilling out and swimming with our neighbors and it's just fun. We have great neighbors :)
Ok well I will get going. Go buy the book, donate some time or money... :)
