Settling in at Institute...how far will we go?

Well, the big day finally arrived. We completed our quest from Gallup to Houston, arriving at Moody Towers just after noon. The place was bustling, and it reminded me of pulling up to the House on Virginia Avenue at the beginning of my freshman year at GW. Young, excited Corps members from the New Orleans, Houston, Mississippi Valley, Hawaii, and, of course, New Mexico regions filled the entrance to, and lobby of the dorm, making any sense of sanity a distant dream. We made the rounds of information tables, gathering keys, linens, transitional funding checks (cha-ching), and other things to prepare us for five weeks of intensity.

After a Target run and one final meal before entering into 'bagged lunch heaven', we returned to the dorm, and I got going on some remaining Pre-Institute work. We then collected for a joint NM members barbeque and heard a rousing welcome from a current NM Corps member who is working at Institute this summer. It's interesting to think that another group, similar to ours in hope and ambition probably sat at the very same picnic one year ago, wondering what the next thirty-five days had in store. Did they meet their goals? Did they set them high enough? How did they handle the Houston heat and humidity for that matter?!

I think that the first week of Institute is critical. We will each be off doing our own thing at schools around the area, and my goal is that we all maintain the close connection we forged in Gallup. Every member of this group has sincerity. Every member has big ambition. If we can keep our thoughts in order, continuously egging each other on, and pushing one another to think and develop new, progressive objectives, we should be in a good position to achieve, as they say in TFA lingo, 'significant gains'.

Another thing I'm thinking about is the pathway to adulthood. When exactly did I finish that journey? Apparently, I graduated from college and now am responsible for cooking, cleaning, and, more generally, caring for myself. These thoughts, actually, are quite exciting. I look forward to establishing a home in Gallup, decorating it with maps, posters of inspirational leaders from past generations, and establishing a bookshelf adorned with my favorite texts (the shelves will be less stocked than they should be, however, as one of my bags came through to the airport in Albuquerque missing four books I packed!).

These are interesting thoughts. In life, at least my own, starts are the norm. I shift from beginning to beginning, loving what I'm doing but knowing that it will pass in time. I question my responsibility to the world, to the problems facing those across it, and to what extent I can and should try to enjoy my own life if it means detracting attention from working to combat problems afflicting others. Do we, as priviledged humans with financial security, opportunities to educate ourselves, meaningful employment, health care, and countless other amenities we so easily and commonly overlook, care enough about the problems around us? How far are you willing to go to end poverty, hunger, inequality? Would you sacrifice a meal so that someone in a distant land could eat three? Would you forego your latte so that a baby in Ghana could get corn and grains to nourish her aching belly? Would I?

Right now, as I enter into TFA training with hundreds of other like-minded, dedicated youngsters hoping to positively impact the lives of children facing challenges about which most of us have only read or studied in the hallowed halls of fine public and private universities, I see great potential, passion, and drive. There exists little doubt that everyone here wants to do good. My question is, how far will we be willing to push ourselves once we get out on the ground, and, as one great, budding leader in TFA's New Mexico state office so eloquently put it, "stare down the inequity every day"? Will we shy away from the challenge to which we previously pledged so much devotion and commitment? Or will we step up and demand something greater of ourselves than we could have imagined before. Will we demand something that transcends our normal bounds and allows us to step away from that comfort zone in which we could casually study and discuss the world's most pertinent and pressing problems without coming face to face with the true pain, desolation, and hopelessness facing billions of humans across the world? I hope to do my part to ensure that we do, together, make this critical leap, and become the generation that does something to finally STOP the inequity that plagues our world. Poverty is not inevitable. Hunger is not inevitable. But neither is progress. Institute begins tomorrow- today, I suppose- and today is the very best day we have to make a change. What a beautiful day it will be.