A New Year is a Time for Change!

Today is the day that my journey towards helping accomplish the Millennium Development Goals. Now that it is 2011 it means that there are only four years left! That scares me a little bit because the past ten years did not see much progress in the successful completion of the MDGs. After the conference I was so inspired and excited to get started on projects and presentations about my experiences and what I wanted to do towards the MDGs, but then real life got really busy and changing the world fell on my priority list. That sounds awful, but the things I was doing were very exciting! I started my teaching career with a bang as I did my first round of student teaching. Now that it is the new year full of exciting opportunities, experiences, and promise I want to get started right away on my projects. In the silly tradition of New Years resolutions I have a few that I would like to share with everyone (if anyone even sees this...)

1) Create a presentation that I can give to Girl Guides, the general public, and family and friends.

I want to make an impact on people and hopefully inspire them to take action and make a difference. I want to stress that the smallest of actions can change things and I like to share the almost cliched story about starfish.

One day a man was walking along the beach when he noticed a boy picking something up and gently throwing it into the ocean. 

Approaching the boy, he asked, “What are you doing?”

The boy said, “Throwing starfish back into the ocean. The surf is up and the tide is going out. If I don’t throw them back, they’ll die.”

“Don’t you realize there are miles and miles of beach and hundreds of starfish? You can’t make a difference!”

After listening politely to the man, the boy bent down, picked up another starfish,
and threw it back into the surf.  Then, smiling at the man, he said "I made a difference for that one .”

 

2) Give at least 5 of these presentations within the year.

I hope that I am able to seek out opportunities to give speeches and show videos about both the Young Women's World Forum and the Millennium Development Goals. I hope that by showing I did something that seems impossible or highly unlikely others, especially young girls, will want to do similar things in their future as a Girl Guide or in another situation.

3) Create a five year plan for what I want to accomplish and who I want to help.

I am a big believer in planning for success and I really like having a written record of what I want to do so I can compare it to what I have done. I have chosen a five year deadline so I can work hard for the next four years to the deadline for the MDGs plus an extra year to finish off any projects I started.

4) Have fun with and learn a lot from others who have the same goals as me.

By staying in contact with others from the Forum and people in other organizations I will have both a support system and a team to work on projects with.

5) Update this blog at least once a week to record my progress and keep others updated on how I am doing.

I want to spread awareness about the cause and social media seems to be the way to go. I may even start a YouTube channel later on once I get some of the projects rolling. 

That's all I have to say for right now so I wish everyone a very happy New Year and I look forward to this grand adventure. 

Until next time,
Shannon