Saving The World Aboard a Lear Jet..

Saki wrote me an email tonight and it reminded me of something I've been intending to post about for quite a long time. It's a conversation that seems to echo and reverberate with many of my friends. Maybe it started with a trip from a 4 star hotel in Slovakia (EXPRO 2002) to a Gypsy community without electricity. Tour buses and all. At any rate, some thoughts I ruminate over from time to time:

The dilemma at hand is one of personal/social responsibility. Glibly, it's the PeaceCorp Vs. PriceWaterhouse Cooper mentality. Continuing status-quos or breaking the mold. It's a tough thing to deal with when you're trying to make it as a young person in this world. On the surface, its seems to be played out all the time with Alumni in AIESEC. One might be in the Kamchatka peninsula working for a NGO that directly helps some of the poorest of people in the world, while another is formulating the ideal business plan to get rich with an IT company in Stockholm (or avoiding corporate America like the plague and working for the US Government;). Are these different values being played out? Could they be the same?

On one hand, you're smart, you've got your act together, you've got the creditals, you've invested a lot in college, and it's time to see just how far you can succeed in today's competitive job marketplace. Make mom and dad proud. Creme rises to the top and you're a shoe-in for running up that corporate latter. You deserve the best. On the flip side, you're plagued with feelings of indifference toward the whole "game". How meaningful is your life if your goal is only to amass material possessions and financial stability while wars are waged, poverty persists, etc. etc. Trite. You already have more than enough to be happy, and subconsciously you may already feel a little bit guilty about the bloated western lifestyle you lead. That plasma screen hanging off the wall just doesn't gel with the flashback of mom clinging to sick son..begging off the streets of polluted Delhi. How to reconcile your "save the world" mentality with an exterior society that appears to be built on consumerism, desire for wealth, and "shiny things"? Perhaps we just grow tired of fighting it, label it as a "liberal college cause", start a family, buy a home, and accept that life isn't fair. But, maybe we grow tired of allowing injustice, realize we have an obligation to make at least a small change for the better, and sleep with some peace of mind. Let's hope for the latter.

Of course, it's not so cut and dry or black and white. Bill O'Reilly would like you to think it is, but it simply isn't. The nuance is age and experience. Perhaps you can have your cake and eat it, too? It's dangerous thinking, and I've been warned that it's a trap..but that's a whole different dicussion and one which lends itself to several glasses of scotch.

The main point is not to lose sight of your values and to seek experience. Sometimes that experience will give you an economic windfall at an early age, other times it's for naught. I really believe, especially in your 20s, seeking as much experience and, as Saki and I talked about in Austin, doing as much "information gathering" as possible, is the best path. Scour the earth and your soul and find truths for yourself. There's a lot of misinformation and fear promulgated by isolationalists, cat-lovers, dog-haters, liberals, religious leaders, news sources, socialists, celebrities, parents, conservatives, capitalists, nationalists, bosses, vegetarians, marketers, environmentalists, politicians, etc. etc. about what you should be doing, how you should structure your life, and what's important. I have friends who are employed by Greenpeace in Amsterdam and oil companies in the Gulf. I've worked for AIESEC as well as the US Department of Defense. The point is there's good and bad in all organizations, and at this point it's important to realize that while youth is our biggest asset, it can also be our biggest hinderance. There's just so much to learn and so many skills to garner!

Seeing, exploring, and discovering for yourself will shed light on what you hold to be legitimate in life and how you wish to spend your conscious moments. In that respect, I hold the young person working in the NYC office performing complex administrative tasks and the other teaching english in Botswana to poor children in a "developing country" in the same light. Nobody has sold out yet. Intentions has a lot to do with it and while money is important, it shouldn't be the ultimate end-goal. True those with money make the changes (good or bad), but the intentions behind the money are the most crucial element. I certainly wouldn't be doing my job today if I didn't think that down the road it would allow me to get my foot in the door with a different Gov't agency and make some real changes for the good. I'm sure (hope) that many people on nomadlife.org are in same position.

So, if you're wondering which path to take, PWC or PeaceCorp, just remember that many paths can lead to the same destination. An ocean refuses no river:) First, seek the experience. Get the skills. Practice your patience. Don't lose track of your goals, values, and ambitions. Be persistent until you get want you need. From personal experience, I can say it's an endurance test, that's for sure.

Well, until then, I'll be having some caipirinhas on the beach;), saving up some cash to see another locale unknown to me.
Cheers!