I really enjoy what I’ve been doing this year and I like being in a position where I get to be at the center of a newly created program that’s already in such demand and scaling out so quickly, but it’s kind of annoying that it’s part of such a huge program with so much bureaucratic oversight. I work within an alternative school system as the representative of this huge Nonprofit creating this new partnership. I had maybe four or five days of training before being shipped off to another state where I’ve been left for the last year to try and figure how to do this. So far it’s been going alright but the times I feel the most frustrated is when I’m in contact with my main office. They’re good people doing good work, but it’s a hieratical system that works from the top down instead of the bottom up. There’s a lot of systematic organizational stuff going on, but not a lot of direct involvement with the people they’re working with. There’s a lot of distance.
I wrote a paragraph description a few weeks ago that explains who we are and what we do. This is going to be used at Big Bang-a huge nation wide conference where all the schools get together and talk about new programs and plans for next year. I’m using this as a launching point to bring my program up to a nationwide level, and will be holding workshops for dozens of principals and teachers across the country (no pressure). But it’s weird because even though I have very little interaction or exposure the whole YV world I still have to conform to trademark and copywrite phrases. I’m so isolated with what I’m doing that it’s easy to forget there’s other people working for the same company (the fact that I think of it as a company and not a nonprofit seems meaningful in itself).
The director asked me to rewrite the paragraph with ® and ©, which is no big deal, but it’s becoming symbolic of how even through I have huge amounts of freedom within this group (at times an intimidating amount), I’m still not where I want to be. I'm starting to get itchy feet and getting tired of working in a high-school. Honestly I’ll be fine doing this for another year but after that I’m really looking forward to the prospect of gong back to school. This place in Arkansas is so kickass, I’m really excited about being surrounded by people with similar passions who are enthusiastic about being active in the world. One more year.