Making A Difference

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do / With your one wild and precious life.”
-Mary Oliver’s “The Summer Day”

I’ve talked before about my list of things I want to do before I die, and you’ve gotten a brief preview of what is on it and what I’ve  been able to check off in the six-ish years since I made it. So far, as you've learned, I’ve milked a cow, visited one of the homes of Laura Ingalls Wilder (so that one is only partly done, really), and donated my hair to Locks of Love. But today, I want to talk about what I think is the most important goal on the list, which is make a difference.

I like to think that it’s easy to make a difference to someone, somehow in everyday life, and that it’s the small gestures that really matter, so I’ve hopefully accomplished this goal sometime in my adult life. But I find that some goals on my list actually become bigger goals, that I’m not satisfied when I technically accomplish them.

Take, for example, my goal of having something I’ve written published. Technically, I’ve done this—I wrote an article for my college newspaper plus a letter to the editor, had articles published in magazines I’ve interned with as well as the one I currently edit for, and maybe even this blog counts as being “published,” depending on your definition. But this is something I keep on the list, because I find I want to aim for something bigger.

My “make a difference” goal is like this—even if I feel like I’ve done it already, I want it to be bigger. And I want it to be something I do and feel in my everyday life. Before I started my full-time grown up job, I worked in the nonprofit industry as a communications intern. And I loved it. I loved learning about people and writing about their reasons for creating scholarships and donating money to specific causes. I felt like I became a part of their journey of making a difference, even if I was only writing a press release.

 

And that is why I’m excited to announce that 2011 will bring big changes for me, as I’ve accepted a new job in development, and I will be working on workplace campaigns to raise money for health-related charities. While I am sad to leave my friends at my current job, I am really thankful that I found an opportunity to get back into nonprofit.