Building a Better Community: Change Lives with a Small Act of Great Love

 

 

I changed lives today with a small act of great love.

 

 

Earlier today, I provided the inspirational send-off for Muhlenberg College (www.muhlenberg.edu) seniors completing a weekend of seminars about transitioning to life after university.  Many of them were feeling anxiety, and I told them they did not have to pick a career today or find a job tomorrow.  Rather, I explained that their career is not a ladder to climb, but a path that will wind, zigzag, and meander.   

 

I explained that when I sat where they were sitting back in 1998 (when I was a senior in university), I had just landed a lucrative spot in a management training program with Sprint and thought I would just work my way up the corporate ladder there.  At that time, I never would have envisioned that I would go on to fulfill my passion for education through corporate training and university training, live in Korea for a year, and most importantly, come out of the closet.  I told the students to relax.  It’s good to plan, but that they don’t need all the answers now and cannot possibly predict what they will be doing when they are my age. 

 

 

And in that moment, I changed their lives.  A wave of relief swept the room, and I could see the anxiety on many of their faces dissipate.  They felt better.  I lived my mission – to help people do, be, and feel better.  And it took just a little bit of effort on my part to show great love for Muhlenberg seniors worried about moving into the real world – just an hour of preparation and an hour of facilitation.

 

 

So, now it’s your turn.  What small act of great love have you done recently, or would you like to do soon, to change someone’s life?  Share your stories here – I can’t wait to read them in the comments section of this post!

Comments

[Brian Driggs]

Way to go, Mr. Fishbone. It's not so much that we need maps, but a sense of direction. To thine own self be true. Only when we truly know where we are relative where we want to be are we fully empowered to realize our potential, right?

I stopped by a friend's shop yesterday to pick up my bolt bins (literally, two plastic bins full of nuts and bolts from disassembling several cars over the years - worth their weight in gold) and he mentioned he would like me to help him launch a sort of community outreach project.

Details are still sketch, but it looks like I might be spending one evening a week hanging out at the "race car factory" helping folks who want to learn more about cars, but maybe don't have automotive role models in their lives. I'm pretty excited. Nervous, but excited.

The best is yet to come...

[Brian]

Brian - Thanks as always for sharing your thoughts and participating. You are an inspiration to me - you're so good at keeping up with blogs! Cheers! - Brian