Well another busy season for a youth leadership organization that I volunteer for has come and gone and I can't help but look back over the 7 year ride it has been.  I came back to the organization in 2006 (I am an alumnus from 1994 and volunteers as a Staff Assistant (SA) for two years after that before I got busy with college and life).  But in 2005 I reached an epiphany: I was getting stagnant.  I wasn't going anywhere. I wasn't moving forward with life.

I needed to be proactive!  I needed to start making some goals and achieving those goals!  Then came the moment of truth . . . 'but how do I do that?! What should my goals be?!

Well after a bit of soul searching, one of the directions I decided I needed to go with my new found goals was to give back to a world that had given so much to me.  And what better organization to give back to, than the organization that showed me that I could make a positive difference in the world. I had always wanted to be a facilitator like the one who inspired me over 10 years ago.

So I sent a message to the Leadership Seminar Chair (LSC) that year and, lo and behold, they had a facilitator position open.  It was fate!  I was supposed to be there.  Flash forward seven years later and I have held many positions at HOBY Arizona, including facilitator, Director of Programs, Director of Recruitment, LSC  and Alumni Advisor.  This year I branched out to other seminars too as a facilitator for Wyoming and the World Leadership Congress in Chicago.

So in honor of another year of HOBY under my belt I thought I would post the blog I posted before my first year as a facilitator:

Titled: Christmas carols in June
Originally Posted Saturday June 3, 2006
At the Time I was listening to Good News for People Who Love Bad News - Modest Mouse
And my stated mood was: Awake

So next week I get to go to Tempe and be a facilitator at the HOBY Seminar this year. I'm kind of looking forward to it and it should be good times. I remember when I went there some 12 years ago. It was definitely good times.  Hopefully I won't get any crazy kids in  my group who start dancing and singing Christmas carols 'cause that's just weird.  I mean think about it, it's 100 degrees in the middle of the Sonoran desert in June and they are singing Christmas carols.  That's just not right. Besides, they would just be alienating those poor Jewish kids.

. . . Until next we meet.
Sandalmarks