Be Brave
My life theme for last year was BE BRAVE, so I bought a Giving Key to remind me to do just that. I was working for a camp at the age of 22 with a lot of responsibility and sometimes felt like my age defined me and my capabilities. Fast forward a few months I had the opportunity to apply for the same job at a new camp, so I did and got it! But I was moving in the busiest season of my job. I ran hard into our summer camping season really trying to fulfill the pressures I put on myself. The pervious woman who had my job hired the interns who would help me run the retail department for the summer. Sometime throughout the summer I realized how caught up I was in my job that I realized I was not investing in the people around me. That same day I sat down with my intern and she told me about how she wanted to leave the internship early as she was heading to Africa five days after her scheduled departure date from camp. She broke down stating that she was sacred and the thought of her moving across the country, to a new continent, for an entire year had finally hit her. She felt stressed about wanting to be a part of her intern community but needing to raise $10,000 so she could do agriculture development in a village in Africa & feeling the pressures of trying to learn Swahili while working 10+ hours six days a week. I just happened to be wearing my "BE BRAVE" Giving Key during this conversation and while she was talking all I could think of saying was "I believe in you Katie, Be Brave." She ended up almost fundraising almost all of the $10,000 while she was an intern and starting gaining excitement for her time in Tanzania. On Katie's last day I gave her a card and in the card was the necklace. She starting crying and wore it around the entire day.
