the year of pursuing passions and living with purpose.

the idea for me to start a non-profit has always been a "one day" plan...probably in five to ten years. but for 2007, i decided to dedicate this year to pursuing my passions and living with purpose. along with a couple other friends, i decided to reconnect with the issues and activities that stir my soul and to pursue those as much as possible. i thought that this meant that i would be taking a lot of dance classes, running in races, and possibly volunteering more...but as the year has gone on, i realized that i wanted to truly live and not just survive. i currently work for a non-profit, which is great and all, but my heart wasn't feeling fulfilled, and i've become quite complacent in my job. i started to brainstorm jobs or even career fields that would better use my skills and interests, but what i realized is that my five to ten year plan is what i really want to do. instead of waiting for five or ten years to get here, i'm going to start working on starting a non-profit now while i'm gaining experience and have a full time job to support me before the non-profit is up and running.

so what do i want to do with the non-profit? well, while in grad school at boston college, i interned with the massachusetts alliance on teen pregnancy as a public policy intern. it was a life changing experience. they use education, policy analysis, advocacy, and research to impact statewide teen pregnancy prevention and teen parent services funding and programs. basically, they advocate and teach others to advocate for funding for EFFECTIVE teen pregnancy prevention programs and QUALITY teen parent services. i fell in love with the work and the issues and realized how much the issue of teen pregnancy identified with me. the research shows that almost one in three american teens gets pregnant, and as i looked back at my friends in high school...the group of three that i hung out with early in high school, one was pregnant by 18. the second group of three i hung out with at the end of high school, one was pregnant at 18. teen pregnancy was all around me. and i look at my extended family, which consists of so many teen parents. i was the first grandkid in my family who WASN'T a teen parent and who went to college. i'm from amarillo, which has an insanely high teen pregnancy rate, and i consider myself lucky (and blessed) to have made it through my teens without getting pregnant and able to go to college.

and now i have a challenge. i want to start a non-profit similar to the massachusetts alliance on teen pregnancy....a statewide non-profit dedicated to advocacy, education, research, and policy analysis related to teen pregnancy prevention and teen parent services. i don't know if there are non-profits that already exist in texas and do what i want to do, but i will be starting this journey and will hopefully find myself on the other end with a meaningful profession using my passions and living with purpose.