New Year's Resolutions

I have started and abandoned this post about eleventy-hundred times. I keep meaning to write something engaging, enthralling, and funny, or really, just something that uses real words and punctuation. Instead, I have just been enjoying life. School is still out for the semester, the holidays are over and life is finally stabilizing a little bit. And it is wonderful. We have dinner together, we read books and put puzzles together, and we feel… normal.

I am thankful every day for normal.

So many people I know are out of jobs, or are dealing with a looming job loss, or have health trouble or are struggling with something else, an addiction, the loss of a loved one, anxiety, depression. I am so thankful that for right now, we only struggle with what to make for dinner, and whether the blue or green pajamas are best for keeping blanket monsters at bay. I am lucky.

Which means I feel driven to help those who aren’t doing as well. Every day I have woken up for the past few weeks, I have wondered where the best use of my energy is. There are so many nonprofits doing such valuable, important work. Keeping people off the streets, protecting children from violence, teaching new immigrants to read and speak English so they can get a job to support their families, making our water safe and clean and drinkable, helping inmates make a transition back into society, fighting for victim rights. The list goes on and on and on again. And I feel this compelling need to help them all.

Recently, I realized that maybe I could.

There are a lot of important causes out there. I can’t work at them all, and I will never have enough money to single handedly fix the world. But that doesn’t mean that my optimism flags or that I will stop trying to make a difference. In fact, I have recently realized how important my degree could be in helping me reach out to the broader nonprofit community. In May, I will graduate with a degree in Public Affairs, with a focus on Nonprofit Management. When I started this program, I didn’t know what I wanted to do with it, other than earn more money. Maybe get a nice cushy government job and watch my pension grow. Today, neither of those things is going to happen, but maybe that’s alright.

As I start my final semester in graduate school, I think I finally know what direction I want to go with my degree. I want to help nonprofits succeed. I can’t work for all of them and I can’t give them all money, but I can help them be stronger and more effective, so that they can continue to do their great work.

That is how I want to make a difference. Sure, it isn’t as exciting as “on the ground” work, but helping nonprofits stay strong and effective through strategic planning, following business plans, implementing and enforcing internal controls, and more could help nonprofits get from here to there more effectively. And that would be a good thing. Because times are tight, and nonprofit budgets are even tighter, and we could all use a little help.

So, I don’t know where I will be in a year or five. Maybe I will be working at the same organization I am at now, doing just that, making our groups as strong and effective as they can be, so they can fight for the environment. Maybe I will be doing freelance consulting work. Maybe both. Maybe more.

What I do know is that my life needs meaning, and because I have the luxury to be able to help others, I am morally compelled to.

That was a pretty long intro into my New Year’s resolutions. That would be because I do not think about my posts before I actually start typing. That would involve some of “plan”. I do not really do “plans”.

That being said, here are my New Year’s Resolutions:

1) Get shit together
2) Save the world
3) Make nice with the library
4) Stop pretending like I do not know how to do laundry
5) Learn how to do laundry

There are more, yes. But I choose to keep those private so that when I fail at them, no one will laugh at me. Good luck to you on your New Year’s resolutions, and stay warm, wherever you are.