Childhood Dream Realized: Chapter One Begins

When I was five years old, I vividly remember the day my kindergarten teacher asked us to write down what we wanted to do when we grew up.

I never forgot my answer-- that I wanted to write and illustrate books-- but it never made as much sense in the past 21 years I've been in this body than it did a couple months ago when I decided what I want to do with my life.
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In September I met someone on my bike tour who had been to Guatemala and recommended I visit the site of the NGO Long Way Home's project of building a school out of tires, bottles, cob and trash (longwayhomeinc.org).

Long Way Home's name rested quietly in the back of my mind for my first 2 months of my stay in Guatemala while I worked at Maya Pedal, but I didn't schedule a visit until less than a week before my flight back to California.

Finally, on my way back from an adventure-filled week and a half around San Pedro La Laguna during which my good friend Meagan and I visited a couple of women's natural dye and weaving cooperatives, a commune, an amazing permaculture farm (www.permacultura.org/guatemala.html), and volunteered with the project Paint My Future (paintmyfuture.org) which teaches art classes for kids and helps support poor families, I made it to the tire school in Comalapa.
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The organization's vision for the school, their passion for the cause, and the construction as it now stands are all impressive and beautiful.

But the high I got from the place wasn't so much due to the things they are doing there (lately I've surrounded myself with equally incredible people and visions, and have raised my standards for normal existence), but because of a conversation I had with the director, Matt.

During this conversation, I learned that Long Way Home is looking for an artist to write and illustrate books for the children that will attend its school on topics like green construction, waste and recycling, and inspirational revolutionaries.
Also during this conversation, I realized that part of my purpose in life is to create conscious children's books for organizations like this one.
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A blur of words, wisdom and warnings about intentions, following through, hard work, regrets, what I should expect if I happen to be that person they are looking for to make a book series and live awhile in Comalapa, and the lifestyle and dedication of the ninja-jedi warrior followed, and not long later I was sitting alone in a corn field and asking for answers.
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I watched the dry, brittle leaves of the corn stalks flutter in the breeze, felt the crumbling crust of the Earth I sat upon, and waited for a response.
A corn leaf broke off its stalk and floated for a moment in the air, spiraling in the direction of the tire buildings behind me.

I thought about my uncertain future and the challenges that may come from deciding to be my own boss and making a career from scratch.

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I can see a slide show in my head of directions my path may lead me, the places I might go, people I might meet. What if Long Way Home provides my first real job? What if after my work with them is done, I write books in Nepal for Nepalese children? Then Ghana? Then China?

What if it works out that I am able to do something that meets my needs while helping to enlighten and direct some of the world's future leaders?

I've known for as long as I can recall that I need art in my life. For the last few years it's been clear that I also won't be happy unless I am using my gifts to create positive change.

This is where I've landed.

This is where my values, my passions, and my gifts meet, and where the kind of person I want to be, and the kind of person I could be, align.
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I recently finished a first draft of my first book (about an 8-year-old Guatemalan girl's discovery of where tires come from, where they go, and what she can do with her new found knowledge) and am in communication with the organization to see what can become of our visions for a series.

But if this isn't my "big break" , so be it. There are more amazing projects out there than I can count, more opportunities than I can imagine, and the world just keeps getting smaller.

I've got the tools, I have the vision.

Now I put my intentions into the universe, and watch the rest of my journey unfold magnificently.