It's not always easy to keep a fire going on within you, especially when there aren't many people around you doing the same things as you. A young girl of 20 years, who everybody expects to be going to college, is at home taking a huge break from her studies to experiment with her ideals and abilities. She just couldn't wait to see if she is really capable of bringing her ideals regarding the world and its people into action. She just couldn't wait to start feeling worthwhile by doing exceptional things in needy areas. She always felt needed at unprivileged areas and she couldn't wait until she got 'old enough' to do things.
It is not like UWC out here at home. At Pearson UWC, almost everybody is concerned about the world and people they might never meet, about environment and sustainability, and about international co-operation and peaceful human existence. Breaking the trend to do things that good for the above causes is almost a trend at any UWC. But once we move out of UWC, we go through a disillusionment. We find our ideals and dreams limited almost only to our hearts and minds and find ourselves utterly different to the rest of the world in the way we think and look at issues around us. It is hard to accept that not everybody cares for the world as much as people at UWCs do and as much as probably every human being should.
At home here in Kathmandu, there are twenty times the number of people who ask me why I'm into wasting my 2 years, postponing my college graduation date and doing things for which I don't even get money. I'd love to explain to everybody why I'm doing what I am. But if only it was possible to explain to all the people who care about me. When at times I burn out, I sometimes don’t even have another candle burning beside me to lend the flame for the candle in my heart.
But right then appear books like 'How to Change the World'. Never have I been so grateful for books as I have been during this period of my life. It is really important to know about people who are into things similar to you or into things that you'd like to get into. And this book has precisely offered me that. To me this book is about people who have not only identified problems in their societies but also defined roles for themselves in regard to the issue and acted on it instead of expecting and waiting for others. This book is about the people who have acted to 'bring about the change they wanted to see' and to 'make the world what they wanted it to be'. And it is about the people who have done so regardless of how the trend spoke to them.
For me, reading this book called 'How to Change the World' is like have an hour of reflection on how I have been working on the ideas connected to National Youth Service, like having a conversation and sharing session with people who have acted on making big changes with a humble starting and like opening a book of possibilities and hopes for every new day with NYS.


I will write about specific entrepreneurs mentioned in the book sometime later.

I really do wish I completed my journal titled 'One Month with NYS'. I remember the end of the first month as a time of great achievement and satisfaction. I was in a mood of celebration. I had so much to say. Well, still I do. The difference between then and now, I guess, is the fact that I feel like I am heard and accepted much more now than I was at the end of our first month.
Let me write about why we are doing what we are. There are so many reasons. To me youth volunteerism is one good answer, if not the only one, to a lot of questions and challenges regarding positive social change.
Now that I have worked on so many drafts of the concept paper of NYS, the points highlighting the importance of voluntary service are almost on my fingertips. Yet, I'd like to go back to the point where I started with this idea of a body promoting youth volunteerism in Nepal. And this idea was borne as a result of reflections on my experiences as a volunteer.
If I look back and ask myself what voluntary service gave me, my first answer would be - memories of moments of contentment. I remember feeling good about teaching women some Mathematics for tailoring and I remember enjoying times with children at Naga Tole Sudhar Samiti. I remember those times as being the ones when I was happy with myself, with the time, the settings and with the work I was doing. When you are happy with what you do, you also feel happy sharing the talking about your experience. Your face talks more than your words and you are left with that happiness to share with people for the rest of your lives. My friends tell me that there is still a difference in me - there's a light of joy on my face - when I talk about my experience as a volunteer. I am grateful I have the memories for lifetime.
Working as a volunteer brought me close to people who care for others like the sisters at Mary Ward School. It is hard to find people who barely talk about themselves. At times, in this world of capitalism and competition, it's almost surreal at first sight to meet and see people who completely dedicate their lives for the sake of others' happiness. I am glad that I worked with the sisters of Mary Ward not only to get inspired by them but also to realize that all they were doing is possible for others also to imitate - to become people whose lives are meant for others and to become the ones whose happiness is drawn from the happiness of people they serve. I can go on and on about the service of sisters I have met at St. Mary's, Mary Ward and Missionaries of Charity. I intend to dedicate one of my blogs fully to them in near future.
Back to the subject matter of this blog, volunteering brought me close to kinds of people in the society whom I'd otherwise would have barely established a relationship. Lots and lots of kids from Newar ethnicity at one spot, a number of illiterate women, and so on. I feel connected to them. And that's a precious feeling. I feel like I can understand them and their feelings much more after working with them than before.
All the other accomplishments come secondary to the ones I've mentioned so far. I can say that I am better at dealing with children in a big group, I am better at holding conversations with women way beyond my age, I am better at hanging out with sensitive and exceptionally introvert kids and what not. My problem solving abilities and inter-personal abilities have gotten refined and I have become more extrovert through the experiences. These are some of my accomplishments to mention. But I guess, the most important of all I must say, is the lesson of empathy - being able to see the world through the eyes of people really different from me and being able to imagine how it must be to walk in their shoes - I have learnt gotten through real life experiences .

(To be continued.)

I found this incomplete journal on my computer dated 12th June 2008.

ONE MONTH WITH NYS

For me, the idea got conceived in Pulchowk. It was the summer of 2006 and I was a volunteer at a learning centre in Naga Tole Sudhar Samiti (Naga Community Development Centre). One woman came asking if we did literacy classes. The employed teacher out there had to respond saying, "No, not until you come with a group and until the program is passed by a higher authority". I wasn't pleased by the fact that the lady had to be turned away. After all, teaching someone doesn't require professionals. I myself couldn't help much as I was leaving Nepal soon to continue my studies. But we had the venue if we wanted to do literacy classes. All we lacked was one volunteer who could take it up. Even an SLC graduate with enough motivation could have made it possible.
That was only a representation of situations in countries like Nepal where there are plenty of areas with needs where a young volunteer, even with minimal education and experience, can make a positive difference. As a matter of fact, there are plenty of young people who wish that they found a way to make constructive use of their time in some kind of service. But most of them lack guidance and directions.
A mediating body that could fill in the gap between such communities in need and volunteers, and a body that could help young people find right organizations to work with during their free hours was exactly, to my finding, the missing link. 'Someday I should work towards that filling that gap,' I thought to myself. It was not my biggest dream of life and hence, just like many of other small wishes it got buried under the pile of my high school graduation pressure and university applications, big talks about the world and leadership, making the world a better place and what not at United World College, Rediscovery Leadership Camp and Pearson Seminar on Youth Leadership.

Today was a day of major surprise for me - a surprise that came along with a package of dilemmas, too. I will start with some background.
Here is my personal vision for NYS - Within a couple of years NYS will have become a hub of voluntary service. National Youth Service will be a movement that will incorporate massive number of young people in service activities and nation-building. NYS in other words will be an action force of youth who do more with their hands than with their speech.
Now, such a movement requires a leader who is idealistic, persistent, devoted, spirited, visionary as well as pragmatic, affectionate as well as commanding enough. Such a movement requires a daring and strong-willed person. I want to provide NYS that leadership.
Now, my dilemma is whether joining the executive board of Youth Initiative will empower me more towards fulfilling my dreams connected to NYS or distract me away from it. I will hate myself if the latter happens. Another cause of my dilemma is whether I should consider standing up for the elections given that I won't be in Nepal fully for the two years.
My surprise today came from one person's recommendation of me joining the executive committee of YI. I don't find this blog the best site to reveal who this person was. But I was suggested that before anybody else decides on whether I should be eligible to stand for the elections, I should be the one to decide for myself. The reason behind this position was the idea that 'one doesn't have to be in Nepal to do stuff for YI'. To give it a thought, I actually agree with it to a great extent. YI is not and should not be limited to Nepal as there are a lot of Nepalese youth abroad whom YI could help with contributing back to their home country. Moreover, YI doesn't have to remain a movement for Nepalese youth only. Given, such vision for YI, I will always have the option to work for expansion of YI's work beyond Nepali boundaries. And hence, if I really am serious about working for YI while studying abroad, too, I really won't be letting the hopes of members who vote for me down.
Now, reflecting on the possibility of my distraction away from NYS, the answer I have come with is that if I really believe in the mission of NYS strongly, I will be able to convince my co-workers on the importance of my focus on NYS even after my election into the board. My election into the board will rather enable me to expand the work of NYS more effectively, and consequently, to make the name of YI even bigger through the performance of NYS!
Really, it seems that my being a part of YI executive committee will not necessarily put NYS into leadership crisis. It rather seems to be in favor of what I and the core team have dreamt to achieve through NYS - a country full of youth enthusiasm and participation in nation-building.

I have now gotten my answer. Writing really does help!

I have chosen this layout of green and blue combination for my blog. To me these colors represent United World College. No other descriptions are required if you know what UWC is.
Some could say I am still nostalgic about UWC while others can say that I still have the fire of its mission going on within me. Either way, one can conclude that there hasn't and probably won't be any thing like UWC experience in my life again.
This blog is the outcome of an inner satisfaction that sinks in you when you feel good about the activity you are into. Today and right now, I am that happy young lady who feels that she has gotten the chance to be where she wanted to be always. By belonging to and by nurturing National Youth Service, I have regained my happiness which I used to think I had lost after leaving UWC.
This blog is about my journey with National Youth Service - a program of Youth Initiative. The destination of my journey with NYS is still a question mark. Not always are destinations determined before the journey. I am at the beginning of the road that I always wanted catch and on the one that now feels just right. I am hopeful that the sun will rise every morning and show me exactly where I have to head each day.

Welcome to my blog!