March 3.
March 2.
1SE, Part I.
Back in January, I made it a goal to work on a big project for this year. It wouldn’t require a ton of my time, but it would require a ton of memory. I’m not a person who is much for a routine, so I decided to work on recording 1 second of my life: every. single. day. The idea was inspired, if not invented, by this TED Talk.
As I approach the spring months, one of my favorite things to do is to make a “compilation” and create “my story.” It may only be 1 second but it is fascinating how it helps you recall what you did on a certain day, even just 2 months ago. It also helps me realize where I spent a ton of my time: hanging out with my dog. Charlotte is a frequent guest star in a lot of the videos!
Enjoy the video – it tracks the very first moment of 2015 (when the ball dropped and I was celebrating with many of my friends from college) right to about 1 hour ago…when I spooked Charlotte by giving her a little blow on the nose. :)
I can’t wait until the end of the year to see how this ends up. Here’s to (hopefully) not ever forgetting a day! And, too, here’s to always having my phone accessible to record a moment! HA!
March 1.
My project for March 2015: 1 Photo Everyday.
So, you know how I’m working on that 1 Second Everyday (1SE) project? I was looking over my calendar last week, and mentally preparing myself for the month of March and I realized just what an eventful month this is going to be. So I figured, also, why not take a photo of each day and post that to the blog as well? That’ll help me get back into the swing of things when it comes to blogging too, right?
Done. Enjoy!
Which country will you carry?
Like I blogged about earlier this month, the stories of entrepreneurship coming out of my home away from home, Blacksburg, are growing by the minute. It’s extremely exciting to see, especially on the national level. Last night’s episode of the popular ABC show Shark Tank is a perfect example of exactly that.
Jack and Alley’s company, Taaluma Totes, has an absolutely extraordinary mission, and I’m proud to have been a supporter of theirs ever since I learned about them back in 2013, and was introduced to their product directly through the Innovate community in 2014.
Friends of Service Awards
It’s a story I tell often. Way back in elementary school, I was elected as the student body president during my 5th grade year. That was a defining experience. The most defining project – irrelevant then, but very meaningful now – was a group project working toward placing new mulch at the front of the school. That notion of community service was small, but the experience stuck with me. About a decade and a half later, I still reflect on that experience for really getting me engaged with community service in a meaningful way at a relatively young age.
Throughout my public school years, more events came and went, but the real next monumental moment was learning the meaning and the value of “Ut Prosim” – my university’s motto. And if you’re reading this blog, I doubt I have to go into that. :)
So, when I saw an invite come through to HESONWHEELS earlier this month for a program put on by the organization Voices for National Service, I immediately chomped at the bit. The organizations they were affiliated with and had done great work with – like Americorps, City Year, and the federal Department of Education amongst others – were organizations that I know try their best to instill service as a value in young people; which is identical to my own personal mission, too.
Home, revisited.
Last fall, I made a post about the struggle I had been experiencing with defining a “home” for myself. I spent much of 2014 moving around. The previous many, many years I had lived in just one place – the longest time I had ever lived in one place – and preparing to leave physically and (I thought) emotionally proved to be as difficult as expected.
Of course, you must know how much I really enjoy TED talks and this particular TED talk, by Pico Iyer titled “Where is home?” really helped me come to terms with the struggle I had been going through. So I wanted to share it here – to both archive it and hopefully, maybe…it can help you if you’re going through a similar struggle, too.
Some of the more powerful takeaways I had from this particular talk…
- “Which place goes deepest inside you, and where do you try to spend most of your time?”
- This really means a lot to me. I may live in one place but as I mentioned in the post I pinged back to above, the place that my heart is, my mind is, my energy is spent…is oftentimes different.
- “My home would have to be whatever I carried around inside me.”
- Interesting mindset, really because it contrasts with what I think. I love traveling but I’m not THAT transient of a person. I do like to have a place to go back to – but I know others who don’t really mind not having a place to go back to as much. At least that’s what they say.
- I love this reference to technology – that shift is an important one in our lives in this 21st century. Duh. I’m grateful for this malleability of the definition and experience and interaction that a person can have with the concept of home. But at the same time – obviously – it gives me a lot of pause. Growing up, you could potentially be a “military brat“or you could have lived in the same house your entire life. Who knows. But your experience will vary – obviously.
Toward the end he even goes into a little bit of importance about mindfulness- something I’ve been trying to practice more, myself, since last September. And, to conclude, Pico said one thing that I’ve always felt but never exactly been able to articulate as well as he does.