Monday, August 17, 2009

Georgetown in the Business of Giving Back

This summer Time magazine featured an article about the First Lady, Michelle Obama. One of the most resounding quotes from the article was that she had found “her space” in this life and knew that it was her duty to operate within that space to make an impact with her life. Georgetown was never my first choice school. My first impressions of it were of a sloppy and unorganized admissions office. Thankfully, a few of the rising second year students have changed my mind about it. When I started this endeavor of applying to business schools, my daily prayer was for peace with my destination and the journey. Those prayers were answered as I went through this nerve wrecking process. Now that I’ve arrived at school, I reflect back and see how amazingly blessed I am, I can’t help but truly believe that someone above is looking out for me and guiding me.

Today was our community service day of orientation. Georgetown means Business and “…is in the business of giving back.” This morning we had Father O’Brien come and speak to us about working for the greater common good of mankind and addressing the in equalities of the world. I had always had a hesitation about going to a Catholic university, afraid that the “catholic” brand would be pushy and impose beliefs or routines that I did not believe in. However, this hasn’t been the case. After meeting my classmates, the good, bad, ugly and annoying, I’ve come to realize that this was the place for me to be all along. It’s totally refreshing to be at an institution that is founded on values and life principals that I believe in and that shape my day to day decisions. This morning provided validation that I had finally found my space. As much as I’ve complained about moving and the shitty way my resignation went, its all really just small peanuts in the greater scheme.

As for my service project today, I and a bunch of classmates went to the local USO. We spent about 3 hours working through palettes of boxes containing items that were going to be assembled into a care package for our service men and women abroad. In a few weeks, the Wives of NASCAR is sponsoring a care package stuffing party in Bristol, TN. There they will have the care package boxes (yes! Care packages are boxes!) that they will put together. We went through enough snacks and toiletries for over 10,000 care packages. Snacks ranged from beef jerky, peanuts and Tang drink mix. Today, we took the items that are going into the care packages out of boxes that they came in from the manufacturer or opened up the boxes to allow them a more efficient use of their packing time. For example, all the flaps on the peanut boxes were removed to save time to not have to open the boxes containing peanuts.

It was a nice break from sitting in the auditorium from the 3 previous days of orientation and a good chance to bond with some classmates and cohort-mates. Go Gray!