Momentum and Pride.
They’re symbiotic, and mutually beneficial – which is “7th grade Life Science teacher talk” meaning that their association makes each of them better than they’d be in the other’s absence. Kinda like peanut butter and chocolate, or ketchup and tater tots.
This fall has been full of momentum and pride at GOALS, and both continue to grow each day. We’ve brought some very passionate people on board who are helping to generate awareness and funding for our mission, and who hosted a social event this week that generated a great deal of each. Back to that symbiosis, it seems…funding and awareness are mutually beneficial as well.
The following evening, I presented to a cafeteria full of interested parents and youth interested in a Desolation Canyon program next May. The presentation took place at a middle school in Fort Collins, the first place I lived in Colorado while working on a Masters degree in wildlife biology. That degree was merely a stepping stone to a veterinary school admission- something I had dreamed about since the time I was a young boy. However, during my time in Fort Collins, I learned that what made me happiest was being outdoors exploring- often on the Poudre River. The exposure to nature that I had been given as a kid – and the unique combination of comfort and curiosity that results from such experiences- was now flourishing in a novel environment with incredible outdoor recreational opportunities unlike those I had access to in Chicago. There’s no doubt that relocating to Colorado caused me to re-focus my career priorities- but I don’t that such re-focusing could have occurred if the people who gave me a chance to spend so much time exploring wild areas as a kid hadn’t done so.
As a result, it made me very PROUD to feel the MOMENTUM building behind GOALS last week- especially in Fort Collins, Colorado. This town had a profound effect in my becoming who I am today- on my own- outdoors. To think that I have the chance to provide the opportunities for these kids in Fort Collins that adults gave me while growing up to build a foundation of appreciation, excitement, comfort, and respect for the outdoors in very gratifying.
I’m starting to see the results of lots of hard work paying off, and it’s incredibly fulfilling. Much more so than peanut butter and chocolate.
