No Car, No Problem: Life in the Slow Lane
I'd been wondering if my carless life was actually feasible for a family. Nice to know the answer for at least one family is Yes!
Friday, April 9, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
Much is Given
After weeks of waiting, days of questions, and long nights of pondering, I have a plan for this summer. Unexpectedly, I also have a plan for next Fall.
A couple of months ago I contacted the organizations Shatil in Israel and Roots of Empathy in Canada about the possibility of working with each of them this summer.
Roots of Empathy was the first to reply with an opportunity in Toronto. We had a great conversation and I got very excited about the possibility of working with them. While I was getting their proposal approved, a representative from Shatil sent an email that said, "I'll be your supervisor while you're here. When do you arrive?" The email caught me off guard because I was under the impression that my lack of fluency in Hebrew and Arabic was too big an obstacle to overcome.
I spent a couple of days agonizing over the decision about where to contribute my efforts this summer. Not wanting to give up working with either organization, I asked Roots of Empathy if they would be willing to defer my work with them until Fall. Instead of completing my IPSP with them, I offered to complete my final Capstone project with them.
When I received word that they would indeed delay the project until Fall, I was briefly thrilled, then terrified. I was a little nervous about the travel and about putting most of my belongings in storage and about not seeing my Clinton School classmates for such a long time, but I was terrified by size of the gift I'd been given. I pictured the next several months of my life traveling to Be'er Sheva, Israel, then Toronto, Canada and I realized how incredibly fortunate I was. And I felt tremendous pressure to do the most I could with the opportunities I'd been given. I expect much of myself.
A couple of months ago I contacted the organizations Shatil in Israel and Roots of Empathy in Canada about the possibility of working with each of them this summer.
Roots of Empathy was the first to reply with an opportunity in Toronto. We had a great conversation and I got very excited about the possibility of working with them. While I was getting their proposal approved, a representative from Shatil sent an email that said, "I'll be your supervisor while you're here. When do you arrive?" The email caught me off guard because I was under the impression that my lack of fluency in Hebrew and Arabic was too big an obstacle to overcome.
I spent a couple of days agonizing over the decision about where to contribute my efforts this summer. Not wanting to give up working with either organization, I asked Roots of Empathy if they would be willing to defer my work with them until Fall. Instead of completing my IPSP with them, I offered to complete my final Capstone project with them.
When I received word that they would indeed delay the project until Fall, I was briefly thrilled, then terrified. I was a little nervous about the travel and about putting most of my belongings in storage and about not seeing my Clinton School classmates for such a long time, but I was terrified by size of the gift I'd been given. I pictured the next several months of my life traveling to Be'er Sheva, Israel, then Toronto, Canada and I realized how incredibly fortunate I was. And I felt tremendous pressure to do the most I could with the opportunities I'd been given. I expect much of myself.
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