I love my job… And a Slam Poem

I feel that I’m incredibly lucky to be able to say that I love my job.

I feel I’m working on problems that matter, I’m getting to dive deep into complexity, I work for an employer that won’t compromise on quality of impact to take the easy road, I get to work with Ghanaians who I know will be leaders in their country’s development…

Over the past week the one thing in particular that has stood out has been the amazing fellow EWB’ers that I’m fortunate to work alongside.

Last weekend we held our semi-annual West Africa Retreat. We spent three days learning from each other and reconnecting on personal and professional levels. Following that, on Monday and Tuesday, our Agricultural Value Chains team held our monthly team meeting and hammered through amazing discussions about our assumptions and hypotheses in our work, how we’re testing them, what is our vision for agriculture in Ghana and what does that mean for the initiatives we choose to drive forward, and where are the synergies across our areas of focus. The energy I get out of working and just spending time with these amazing individuals is beyond words.

Ok, I’m bragging a bit about my job. But hey, have you ever considered applying to work with EWB? 

The one thing I did want to share though, was my slam-poem from the WAR. (If you’re not familiar with “slam” or “spoken-word” poetry, check out my favorites Shane Koyczan or Sarah Kay.) We decided to open the space for some brave souls to try something new and push ourselves out of our comfort zones by hosting a slam poetry night to close off the WAR. Feeling inspired by my colleagues, I wrote the following poem to try to capture the strength I think EWB’ers have when they come together to make big change happen.

***

I look up at the stars, inspired. Inspired by the immensity of a million shimmering lights and the simple, absolute beauty of this sight. Inspired by the notion that out there, there’s something more. There’s more than me, more than we, there’s more than I’ve ever dreamed could be. And then as much as the immensity inspires me, it intimidates me.

Because when compared to everything there is, everything I am is just one single star in this tapestry. And there’s strength and there’s beauty in my individuality but when you look up at the night sky, it seems that single stars become lost in the immensity.

But if I step back and really look, I see the true beauty of one single star comes from being part of something more. The beauty of the sky is in its constellations –each beam of light that transcends the distance that separates each part to create the most stunning work of art.

The strength of you and me is held only partly in our individuality but mostly in our ability to together bring to be the change we want to see. The change we can’t create alone. The change that’s greater than the sum of its parts. The change that comes only through the connection between our heads, our hands, our hearts.

When I think of myself as one and that’s all, my ability to make the change I want to see will always be too small.

But then I look around this room, and I’m inspired. Inspired by these people, who emanate light and the simple, absolute beauty of this sight. Inspired by the notion that here, there’s something more. There’s more than me, more than we, there’s more potential we’ve ever realized could be. And the immensity of this tapestry, inspires me.

 

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