"I am respected among my peers"

Tonight I met up with a group of fellow VISTA's and Girls Inc. co-workers to wish Emmeline good luck as she completes her year of VISTA service, which lead to a conversation about what it means to be successful.

Emmeline said that when you know someone is successful when they claim that they are 'respected among their peers'. What exactly does that mean and does someone tap you on the should and tell you 'fyi, your peers respect you today,' therefore you have hit the top and there's no where left for you to go. For that matter who gives anyone the right to state that their peers respect them, shouldn't only your peers make that statement, and probably when you are far out of earshot.

Personally I think that you are successful when you are happy and fulfilled with life. I feel successful after a yoga class where I challenged myself, or when I am reflecting on my VISTA service, or even after cooking a meal that just tastes amazing.

It's been another crazy couple of months preparing for summer camp, focus groups, and the speakers bureau and I can't believe that I am already entering 5 months of my year of service. I have been spending a lot of time researching GII history trying to find a photo that would be good for the current summer girls to pose as in honor of GI's 40th birthday.

I love doing this kind of research, history is so intriguing and its neat to see how things have really changed over the years.

I've also gotten the opportunity to sit in on some of the summer camp programming and hear stories from the girls first hand. Its been awesome to hear their steadfast opinions on school uniforms, fast food lunches, and driving laws and recognizing how well versed and opinionated they all are.

Today the girls participated in a voting activity where they cast their ballots about if schools should require PE or not, the overwhelming response was yes they should because PE helps people become healthy at a young age and combats obesity.

Fourth of July is next week and I can't wait to see how Indy celebrates our Independence!