I have always liked doing stuff. I’m not one to sit around and veg all day, unless I’m sick or having a bad hair day. Learning, going, seeing and trying are the kinds of things you will find me doing. You could add meeting new people to that list, too. What I really enjoy is hearing how other people make a living or some other tidbit that makes them unique.
I recently interviewed a person, and right before our interview, his son had called from France. He said his son was teaching abroad and was vacationing in France at the moment. I was instantly intrigued even though both the man and his son were complete strangers. For the past 509 days, I’ve been following a friend from high school’s blog. Why such a specific amount of time? Glad you asked. She adopted a baby boy from Ethiopia, and each day they waited to bring him home, she took a picture. By the time you read this, her son should be back in the States and living in his new house.
I follow about 10 other blogs, and there are few where I don’t even know the blogger/author. Is that weird? If I could find a way to get paid to follow blogs, I could be one rich woman.
Because I like meeting a variety of people, I often volunteer my time with various organizations. Sometimes I have to separate the real reasons I’m getting involved from the selfish ones. It’s been more difficult to make friends here than it was in Denver, so I have to ask myself (a lot), “Beck, are you doing this to make friends or really give back?” I find it’s usually a combination of the two. For example, I volunteer at Heifer Village in downtown Little Rock. I give exhibit tours every other Saturday from 1 to 5 p.m. In the beginning, I got involved because I really like the mission of the organization: to work with communities to end hunger and poverty and care for the Earth.
Along the way, I’ve met some great people and had the opportunity to visit with some really interesting guests. During one of my afternoon shifts, a couple from Germany came in. Their accents were easy to detect and I started my normal shpeal, “Heifer is a nonprofit organization that works with communities…” They started asking questions once I took a deep breath. The couple was really inquisitive and turned out to be some of the most interesting people I’ve had the pleasure meeting.
When I turned the tables and asked them why they were in Arkansas, they happily explained that they had rented an RV and were traveling from Illinois to California and stopping at interesting places along the way. I was half tempted to run away with them and join their cross-country journey. But there were still visitors flooding in the doors, so I had to stay put and share the Heifer mission. In my quest to interact with people from various backgrounds, I’ve joined a few more groups. One is called Change Agents; it’s a newly formed group of people who want to learn more about embracing diversity and learning from others. The second group is called YNPN, which stands for Young Nonprofit Professionals Network.
You don’t have to work at a nonprofit to be part of the group, you just have to be interested in the not-for-profit sector and like networking with others who share similar interests. I’m a newbie to both groups, but I’m sure being an over-committed member will provided me with a lot of column material.