Coming Full Circle: My Vision and Life's Purpose

I had a really deep realization today and it involved all the people that I had interacted with and spoke to today.

I'm turning 30 this year, and that means if I live to 90 that I have already completed a third of my life.
That is a big reality check and a good time for me to reflect on what I have accomplished thus far and what is still left to be done.

After my locking practice with Tsuto, we were talking and in the span of 10 minutes, my life's vision flashed thru my mind and I had a brief awakening.

When I went to graduate school at UCLA in 2004, my original dream was to one day create a multi-disciplinary arts non-profit organization for young people, targeting either middle school or high school age. I wanted it to be based on the concept of story telling of having youth create their own stories thru multi-disciplinary avenues within the arts: photography, murals, dance, creative writing, film, etc. That was a big reason why I also went to Brasil in the summer of 2005. A part of my mission there was to research organizations that were already working with favela youth in Salvador, Bahia, Brasil. So, I wrote my paper on my experience there, interviewing people in the organizations there and learning how they do things mixing service and the arts: mostly music (drumming) and dance, specifically in Brasil. My second year of graduate school, I decided to change focus because I wanted to start off in the schools first where I could get first hand experience counseling youth and understanding their lives and issues first hand. I felt with direct contact with the people I wanted to serve, I would get a better understanding of what kinds of programs would benefit the populations I want to serve. I felt that in my past experience working for organizations and doing program development, that I was working with a lot of people that have lost touch with the communities that they were serving and this was something I did not want to imitate.

Now in my second year of working within the school district and my 3rd year out of graduate school, I find myself re-evaluating my original vision. Fortunately, working within the school system and according to the school schedule, I have had the opportunity to travel and this has expanded my notion of working with youth originally in Los Angeles. That was the original plan for me, but now I am open to seeing if there are other parts of the world that would benefit from this vision I have in mind and so my journey is starting to go outwards. Interestingly, this year, I have been brought to my original vision at hand. It's easy to get so caught up in the bureaucracy and the politics within the school district and for awhile I had tunnel vision. But I know my spirit has grown and evolved simultaneously and call it fate, destiny, or what have you, but I have been brought back to my original vision and life's purpose thru the natural course my life has taken me and by the individuals that I have realized I surround myself with because they are all reflections of me and my life's purpose.

I look at my life now and I see how so many people reflect this vision of mine and how fortunate I am to be reminded of this in so many ways. Mari, my sister, and one of my best friends is in the media design program at Art Center and had just finished her internship in NYC with the United Nations doing media design related work on their projects and is still doing work for them. Kumari is another close friend of mine who has a dance program working with youth in South Africa every year. Emiko and SANO both want to do an extension of Hip Hop Island, a program that they did in Philadelphia working with youth and the 4 elements of hip hop. Now that they are living in Los Angeles, this is where their vision is headed along with the many amazing things they are already doing. I just met an amazing individual in Tokyo, Eisaku, and Tsuto had told me that he had donated the money from his last show to UNICEF. Tsuto, himself, told me that he wants to volunteer all over the world incorporating his dance some how. Ali, is another close friend from Ohio, who is working on doing yoga programs in the community. Therefore, I look around me and there are pieces of my dream all around me, evidence that I am on the right path indeed. Dance is an element that I have not explored in a long time, but being actively engaged in an art form also gives me insight into what I am about to create for young people, directly. Therefore, I have come to the realization that I am moving in the right direction when the universe is showing me pieces of this dream as I am surrounded by it in all directions.

Now, is the time to focus and be clear of what my next direct steps will be to help me get closer to achieving my vision and dream. What other skills do I need to acquire? Who do I need to network and build with? What are the projects that are underway in order to accomplish this vision and be happy in this life time? How can I achieve my life's purpose today?

This needs to be carefully planned out and written out and the next steps are up to me.