What's Your Space Jam?

It's been a year since Kid President published his infamous pep talk on YouTube. If you aren't one of the 31,000,000+ views, it'll be three and a half minutes well spent. Besides finding Kid President (Bobby Novak) completely adorable and hilarious, I feel he spreads an important message...and better yet, people seem to listen and respond to him.

So back to his pep talk...many memorable lines - my favorite being, "What's your space jam?"

I've always had a "thing" ... when I was 10, it was making lunch and coordinating activities for my neighborhood friends while our parents were at work. When I was in high school, it was student council, and then yearbook. When I got to college, it was STLF. After college it was STLF. I've always had a natural space to impact people, make a difference, and change the world in big ways and small.

Imagine my surprise, when I leave STLF (knowing for a full year I would do so), and I'm thrown for a loop when my primary identity and "thing" is gone. I never felt like I identified primarily with my employment, but like the vast majority of people, I did.

So I joined a bunch of young professional groups, I read a bunch of books, I tried to find community and meaning anywhere I could. I was feeling pretty good about everything, until last month when I was at my Global Shapers of Minneapolis meeting and our host from ARC asked us to say our name, and what our "thing" was. I rambled some combination of work, leadership, volunteering, StrengthsFinder, Minneapolis... and stuff. Everyone else had a concise answer - local food, education, sexual violence awareness, mixed cultures, fair trade - I did not. Unsatisfied with myself I reflected, and then verbally processed with J, and then reflected some more. I still don't have a concise answer, but I think my thing is living a full life, and helping others do the same. I'm at my best when helping others realize their thing...being their cheerleader, brainstorming buddy, solution finder, accountability partner, devils advocate, or whatever it is to help them along to being their best self.

Fortunately for me, this does loosely tie into my day job as a campus recruiter. I'm also surrounded by some amazing and talented people doing incredible things that I can support and share! More in posts to come.

Not sure it's quite Space Jam worthy, but it'll work for now.
T