It was only a little over a year ago that I joined WITNESS. I was freelancing and one of the assignments I had was working with Matisse, our Communications Manager, to help produce web pages and the e-newsletter for the organization. A month into the assignment a permanent position opened up. I decided to apply. I’d already been applying to other full time positions and, of course, when one opportunity presents itself others follow closely behind. I ended up at a crossroad. One, become a production supervisor for the media department of a university. Or two, become an online outreach associate.
To some, it may seem as though I chose the lesser position. But a year in review, I feel that I’ve chosen wisely. I do leave myself open to other opportunities, a sort of safety net, as a veteran I try to always have a contingency plan. Yet, I find when a job offer presents itself, I politely chat with the caller and pass the opening on to friends out of work after telling the caller all about WITNESS.
Why, you must be wondering, am I sharing this? Because every morning, after a kiss and “Have a good day” to my partner, I’m excited to go to work. Where else would I have the opportunity to play ping pong with Peter Gabriel (although I got stuck in traffic and missed it)? Or work on a fun little skit for a holiday video (watch it below)? Or even more, engage and work with colleagues, donors, and supporters who want to make a difference in this world?
I’m blessed and I look forward to the next year- to be able to build more connections and work for our human rights, because like Miss Congeniality, I want world peace!
Happy Holidays!
Mari, keep passing on those openings to others! We need you here at WITNESS 🙂 Thanks for joining the team and opening our eyes to so many new things this past year.
Ciao Gayla-Don’t beat yourself up too badly. Organization can be time-consuming and tedoius, definitely not at the top of the list of fun things to do.I really suck at photo re-naming, uploading/downloading, whatever it is to photobucket, and organizing into some sort of easy-to-find-again album. I’ve spent several rainy days doing this exact thing and have finally gotten a seriously thick binder full of photos of last year’s tomatoes, just last year’s tomatoes, nothing else, no flowers, no basil, no nothing.The important thing to remember is that you recognized an unmet need and you dove in to address it, even though it’s not maybe your forte. That’s courageous.
Tx to Mari who filmed, directed and edited our holiday / thank you video! Humor is difficult to incorporate into our work and this was a departure from the typical WITNESS staff video- we like being pushed out of our comfort zone every once in a while. And we hope you enjoy the video!