On Becoming a Americorps VISTA
Yesterday, Jon "the Godfather" Lebkowsky alerted me via IM that a friend of his had a position open for an Americorps VISTA. I have to admit, that at first, I had not a clue what a VISTA was. However, I had inkling that the God Father was directing me to something important, so I merely replied, "Whoa" to buy myself some time. I then consulted my local expert, Google.
The Americorps VISTA program is intended for "self-starters"(check), "organizers"(check), and "resource builders"(check) who either have a college degree(blank) or valuable skills or experience(check). VISTAs should be able to work dilligently on projects even when there are no immediate visible results(hella check). It was odd, the main requirements basically summed up the past year or so of my life. Since last may, I've been obsessed with the potential that online communities have for advancing social justice, world peace, and opprotunity for all levels of income. When I say obsessed, I don't mean "interested". The dream led to me dropping out of college (the subject matter isn't coherent enough yet to be taught in the university setting), learned no less 4 programming languages, built a thriving online community that is dedicated to advancing progressive ideals throughout the web, and have now established a professional reputation in CMS, and and web development. Looking back, the risks I took were absolutely nuts; and the full weight of my challenge looks impossibily daunting in retrospect. But its funny, I was able to succeed because I was blind to the size of the challenge. Had I known the hardships I would have faced beforehand, I think I would probably be bored out of my mind in some college lecture at this moment.
Anyways, I felt I measured up to the qualifications. I found out that I would be signing away a year to work at a non-profit for some project which improve the lives of my fellow man. A year.... I thought to myself about whether I was ready to make such a sacrafice. Then it hit me: I'm not signing away a year. Actually, I've just been given an opprotunity to do exactly what I want to do. Money has never been much of a motivator for me. Life is short, and therefore, material reward brings about short rewards. When my life reaches its (hopefully far off) end, my goal in life is the same as my goal in camping. I want to leave behind a better place than I found. So perhaps now you might understand why this is exactly what I want to do at this moment.
It may be that I won't get this opprotunity; however, let's just say I'll be doing everythign in my power to ensure that I do. Forgive me, I ramble egotistically at times; and now I must be off. Busy busy busy