#144 He Wears Nike

The overall feeling of unemployment is that something is missing.  Although I definitely pack my day with a schedule of cleaning, exercising, writing, and playing violin there is the lurking feeling that since I'm not being paid for those things I'm cheating somehow.  I shouldn't be enjoying what I can do even though I now have the time to do it.

I must have some kind of serious guilt complex.

That said, I often jump at the opportunity to add an occasional day of something different to my week.  When my brother, Joel, told me he would be nearby and needed some help with his work, I was the eager front row student with my hand waving in the air to be chosen.

At the beginning of August, Joel and his wife, Mallory, began working for Camfel Productions, a non-profit that sends teams all over the country to present student development programs based heavily on building character and eliminating bullying.  After training in California for two weeks, they drove across the country and wound up only a few miles away from home after a month on the job.

My family was pretty excited over that.

The presentation takes close to two hours to set up.  It is a three-screen projected video and setting up the screens and projectors is no joke.  On my visit, Joel and Mallory had to do this as the auditorium was filled with students for their different orientation periods on the first day of school.

I didn't expect to be so impacted by the video they presented.  They were supposed to be motivating the students, yet I was sitting in my chair feeling the rise within me of inspiration and excitement.  If I remember much about my attitude in high school, I'm guessing that not even half the students reacted the same way as I did.  Hopefully the key points sunk in, but I'm sure there weren't many students stifling tears throughout different segments of the video.

Okay, that one may have been PMS's fault.

The video was called, The Pledge.  Though the main focus was pledging not to bully or spread rumors, the especially moving part, for me, was when the video focused on stories of students who have overcome obstacles and disabilities, yet still manage to live without a worry or care.

Being part of or starting a nonprofit is something I hope to eventually make a part of my future.  I'm sure they had no idea, but spending the day with Joel and Mallory propelled my aspirations and shook inside of me the need to do something.

Nike cleverly coined the phrase "Just Do It" in 1988, and I feel like I need those words tattooed on my forearm so that I can always be haunted by them.  At the writing conference I attended in August one of the presenters used those words as a way of telling the audience they need to write constantly.  No muse is needed, the writer need only to just do it.  It doesn't matter if what you produce is bad.  Just do it, again and again, and it will get better.  Joel and Mallory followed "Just do it" by taking on this job.  It was risky, it was different, but they felt a desire to do it.  And they did.

I think the same is true with anything else we aspire towards in life.  Just do it.  Follow your dreams.  Don't allow inhibition to hold you back, don't allow the thought of what others will think or say to worry you.  It's a simple, but also powerful, concept.  Don't allow it to be used only as a fashion statement.

Just Do It.