documenting my most recent ambition so that i will hold myself accountable to fulfilling it:

i will be celebrating my 29th year soon.  and with it comes a transition from being socially and financially reckless to being globally, environmentally and fiscally responsible.  my goal is to be debt free by the time i am 32-33.  free of a debt that is partially attributed to an education that i am extremely proud of,  yet embarassed that the rest of it is a product of being indulgently spoiled in an undisciplined spending culture for the past 8 years.  i fundamentally believe you can’t put a price tag on life but in the past year i have realized that i can be putting my resources to a greater good – and that is funding this new ambition when i am financially free in a few years time.

in this time i will remain passionate about my current profession, fundraising.  after all, i fell into this world and it is one that i have come to respect and admire but not one in which i will make a lifetime career of.  instead, while practicing what i have learned in the past 10 years by working for worthy causes and volunteering for missions that captured my heart, i will silently prepare myself for life after asking for money for the betterment of public good. 

this of course will require a new mindset, new skills and vast resources if i am to launch what i am callng my ’30s project’: building my own cooperative that focuses on promoting sustainable living, ethical clothing and eating, supporting free trade movements and raising awareness about global poverty while offering a trainee program for refugees and people living on the street.

ambitious, perhaps.  a novel idea, no.  but i believe i have found my calling, my little pocket of the world in which i can hopefully contribute passion and goodwill in some small, significant way.

nonprofit development has groomed me but this past year has also taught me to commit to something that is innately me and not necessarily something that i just tripped and fell into at a young age of 20 years old. 

so, this is a written promise to myself.  and as per my integrity, it is a promise i will keep.