Think Big!
September 25th, 2008 : posted by LaurenYou have to “think big” when you spend a year of your life in service to others. Spend a few minutes talking to a fellow service alumnus, and you’ll hear the idealism and big thinking. I hear it from so many SCA alumni, and I recognize it in myself when I tell stories of my own service experience. Whether we were building trails or interning in a national park, running an after-school program with City Year, building world-wide community in the Peace Corps, doing disaster relief work with NCCC, or working in low-income areas with Teach for America, we are all united in the drive to be part of something larger than ourselves.
It is with this passion that I joined the campaign for national service. It’s no longer important what I did as one single individual. I was lucky simply to have the opportunity to serve. It is an opportunity that I believe should be afforded to anyone who possesses that same desire to stop talking and start doing. And while each individual’s work is making a small impact, the larger movement will make a colossal change.
SCA was founded on a big idea, and the power of one woman who believed she could bring about a change in our country. Over fifty years later, we find ourselves at a new crossroads. If we expand the standard SCA definition of action, we suddenly find ourselves empowered to bring about new change. Don’t worry—action still means building trail and educating the public about our natural resources, and all of the things that we love about SCA. But it also means educating our elected officials about the importance of national service. It means telling our own personal stories of service to our friends, families, and anyone else who will listen. It means enabling a new generation of conservation leaders through legislation that will allow them the opportunity to serve.
Imagine the impact of the service that you have done, want to do, and will do. Now imagine that you’re joined by 10 of your friends (and maybe a rock band or two). And each friend brings 10 friends, and so on. Suddenly you are joined by the force of a million AmeriCorps members and their fellow citizens serving to the best of their ability, every year. What a force!
So as we unite across the country for ServiceNation’s Day of Action and National Public Lands Day this Saturday… Think big!
October 15th, 2008 at 3:23 pm
I agree 100%.