According to a recent personality survey I took, I am a thinker. My friends and I joke around about what that truly means, but deep down I know and embrace that label. I am a thinker. Sometimes I think too much, and every once and a while I forget to think, but at any given moment, I am probably pondering something. Lately I have been thinking about “small-ness”.
There seems to be a potent lack of small things in our lives. Large cars, mega-farms, multinational corporations, and voracious consumer appetites dominate. Many of the problems I notice around me seem to arise from an unsustainable excess. Monocultures, monopolies and unilateral actions are threatening our sustainability as a human population. One breed of cow, potato, corn, political system, finance system, pesticide, antibiotic, advertiser and market are driving the reduction of our world to one homogenous product. I see these monocultures, as I would classify them, as unsustainable and undesirable.
I understand and appreciate that some large systems are required and are often better than smaller ones, for instance – public transportation, communication, emergency relief efforts and public health care. However, not only is small beautiful, and more sustainable, but small can be wonderfully powerful. I believe small ideas and changes can have big impacts. I believe a return to the small and local is a way to alleviate many of our world’s ills. It is to that end that I relish the opportunity to volunteer through the Peace Corps within a community that could use my help.
I am prepared to be a Peace Corps volunteer and tackle a variety of challenges in my placement. As my academic record shows, I have taken quite a range of courses. I am immensely interested in the connections between and among disciplines – how environmental policy is connected with economics, geology, sociology, physics, psychology, mediation, urban development and government. Even the largest problem can have small solutions, but they are often complex, intricate and require broad support and action.
For instance, to truly address urban poverty, changes must be made to education, health care, unemployment support, housing, rural outreach, farm support, environmental protection and a host of other systems and programs. Together, these required changes are by no means small and are linked in ways that are not intrinsically apparent, yet in these links we find the keys to meaningful change. Being a thinker, I love finding those miniscule connections, those interdisciplinary associations that give you that “ah-ha” moment. The moment when you discover problem A is related with problems B through D, but within those connections, you also find a host of solutions: many of them small, yet powerful.
I'm not sure what my future job title may be, but I want to make a career out of "ah-ha" moments. I know this will require an involved understanding of many facets of life and to that end I try to learn as much as I can. I am a thinker for life.
