Why Social Enterprise?
I hope that I get to spend the rest of my life so excited to go to work. I really hope I spend nearly everyday of my life learning something new. And I hope that the work collegues and connections I make are as meaningful and unsuperficial as the people I have met here.
Being at Potluck has really restored my faith in the positive aspects of human nature. It sounds dramatic, but hey, what else is a blog for. My perspective on the world and the meaning of life, well my life, seems to be becoming clearer to me. My understanding of my own values, cultural and individual get clearer everytime I get the opportunity to talk to someone new.
I have reviews with Colin (the executive director) and I don't feel stressed or roll my eyes (maybe when the alarm goes at 8am, I groan a little) but instead I'm like 'yay cool, lets sit down and chat about all the exciting data I have collected this week'.
I twiddle my fingers and pace a bit before each interview, nervous and like 'oh god, what if it goes badly, what if I say something stupid' then next thing I know, it has been an hour and I have learned/typed up a whole new perspective on the world.
The people I interview, look at me, they listen, and they understand more about me from a first impression than some people have the empathetic ability to gauge in months worth of coffee dates.
Just to lighten that up a little- someone said to me on my second week here 'you strike me as the kind of person who has to run for the bus'- how funny is that- I ALWAYS end up running for the bus, and here, I run for the bus on the wrong side of the road!!
On my first day, Colin cheerily told me 'you'll learn being down here that people who have the least give the most' and I don't think I have ever heard anything truer.
That is not to say the people on the street on Potluck buy me gifts and give me cheap rent or whatever materialistic crap we want. But what they do give me is faith and moral support. There is not a day that goes by when they don't say hello, and most days they tell me my dress is nice. Of course they ask me for change, but when I say no, they wish me a good day. They give me good will and they give me what gets them through- which is positivity and community.
