Water Weight and Water Walk
As I mentioned I am attending the Hubspot Inbound Marketing Conference this week in Boston. Monday's failure was not working out at all. Tuesdays failure was not writing an entry to TWTC. Today's failure is success.... I know, mind boggling isn't it? Let me explain.
This conference is career changing. I am learning so much and one of the things I've heard here over and over is that if you are not willing to fail, you're not willing to succeed. I'm hard on myself when I don't stick to this routine of working out and writing about the journey. What I'm realizing is that I want to do this and when I don't work out or write, I feel like there is a hole in me. This blog is now an extension of who I am and for the next few years it will be a defining attribute to who I become.
If I am finding that I like who I am more now that I take care of who I am more. I didn't write last night because I got back from dinner at 10:30p and I called Ben and went right to bed to dream about being back with him. I had a great day though and there are so many things I want to talk about.
The first is Charity: Water. Part of the conference is a partnership with a non-profit that raises money to bring clean water to areas of the world that need it to revolutionize the way people in those regions live. Yesterday the founder of the organization spoke and gave the mission and described the way they are using marketing to ensure that 100% of funds raised go directly to the people they are aiming to help.
Every year they launch a Fall campaign to raise money for a project that will take place over the next year. Last year's project was to raise money for a well-drilling rig called "Yellow Thunder." This truck cost a million dollars and they raised enough money, $10 and $20 bucks at a time to pay for it. Then they went and drilled wells in Ethiopia. That wasn't the end of it though. Yellow Thunder has a GPS tracker on it's roof so you can follow where it goes. You can even Follow Yellow Thunder on Twitter and get reports on where it is and what it is doing at any given time. It is the power of charity that has revolutionized giving by being able to track where dollars you give go and how they help specific people and places.
This year's project is to raise money to bring water to villages in India. A Pioneer in the "Blogosphere" is from one of the villages in India and spoke about his personal connection to this very real problem of people not having access to clean water. He shared a story about how a village of 70 people 10 kilometers from where he grew up was wiped out due to cholera. The cure for cholera? CLEAN WATER. Then he showed this powerful short film about Gram Vikas and the work they did in Orissa, India that revolutionized the lives of the people that live there. It even brought Castes closer together... To put that into perspective, it would be the equivalent of a bottle of water bringing together TEA Party Republicans and Liberal Democrats together to the point where they not only live and function together but they continue to work together to solve all of our problems as a Nation.
He also shared a story about when he was a boy in India. He played with cousins and did all the things that young boys here in the US do to enjoy childhood. He said the one difference is that all the girl cousins and other girls in the village didn't participate or go to school because they were too busy fetching water for cooking, bathing, washing, hands, and to go to the bathroom. He made the point that when he moved to India as a young kid (his parents were born in India) that he thought of the people I just mentioned as people that were like the ones you'd see in National Geographic... that somehow they were different. When he got there and saw it first hand he realized that they are not different. They are just like us only they don't have the luxury of clean water.
It is really hard to put something like this into perspective when you grow up in a Nation that is as privileged as we are. What is even harder is to put yourself in their shoes and literally experience this for yourself. At Day's we have done work with Jewelers that Care to raise money for them to build water wells in Tanzania. Alethe Fatherly Clementson runs the organization and told me about her first hand experiences of visiting villages and going with the women to gather "clean" water that she said we wouldn't even wash our feet in here in the US. I couldn't imagine what those women go through every day. Today Charity: Water changed that for me. They have set up the "Water Walk" at the conference to allow you the opportunity to walk a teeny, tiny bit in those women's shoes. They have 2 40lbs buckets set up for you to carry a measly 12 feet. I made a joke about my bag being really heavy so I should leave it behind on the walk. Then I picked up the jugs and I felt like a total ass. My bag is not even close to 40lbs. Nothing I pick up or carry on a regular basis weighs 40lbs. 40lbs is f!@#ing heavy! And there are TWO jugs. Women carry 80lbs 3 MILES back to their village every single day. It really made me think about how lucky I am.
Just by doing the Water Walk, Hubspot donated $40 on my behalf to the #September campaign for Charity: Water. By Tweeting #Inbound13 and # September in the same Tweet, they donate another $2. I don't Tweet, but I tweeted that.
Clean water should be a basic right for everyone. I really think this is something that we can see changed in our lifetime. It isn't just about getting water to people. It is about making sure young kids don't die because of vomiting and diarrhea. It's about freeing up the time of young girls so they can go to school. It is about giving every human the basic dignity of health because health is the greatest asset of the poor because if you are sick and can't work, you can't earn. If you can't earn, you can't eat.
After doing the Water Walk I got to thinking about how I feel like I failed by not writing last night and my perspective changed. Now I am thinking that while I have "Trouble with the Curvy" I don't have trouble with clean water. It makes me want to work in carrying 40lbs weights when I work out on the treadmill from now on and making sure that this time I walk the 3 miles. My troubles are so small in comparison and it was important to me to make sure I made this part of my journey.
<3 Katie
Day 71
205lbs (says the digital scale here... I'll be calibrating mine accordingly when I get back home)
207lbs soaking wet (after swimming I weighed 1.8lbs heavier... it's not just an expression after all!)
Feeling Humbled
This conference is career changing. I am learning so much and one of the things I've heard here over and over is that if you are not willing to fail, you're not willing to succeed. I'm hard on myself when I don't stick to this routine of working out and writing about the journey. What I'm realizing is that I want to do this and when I don't work out or write, I feel like there is a hole in me. This blog is now an extension of who I am and for the next few years it will be a defining attribute to who I become.
If I am finding that I like who I am more now that I take care of who I am more. I didn't write last night because I got back from dinner at 10:30p and I called Ben and went right to bed to dream about being back with him. I had a great day though and there are so many things I want to talk about.
This year's project is to raise money to bring water to villages in India. A Pioneer in the "Blogosphere" is from one of the villages in India and spoke about his personal connection to this very real problem of people not having access to clean water. He shared a story about how a village of 70 people 10 kilometers from where he grew up was wiped out due to cholera. The cure for cholera? CLEAN WATER. Then he showed this powerful short film about Gram Vikas and the work they did in Orissa, India that revolutionized the lives of the people that live there. It even brought Castes closer together... To put that into perspective, it would be the equivalent of a bottle of water bringing together TEA Party Republicans and Liberal Democrats together to the point where they not only live and function together but they continue to work together to solve all of our problems as a Nation.
He also shared a story about when he was a boy in India. He played with cousins and did all the things that young boys here in the US do to enjoy childhood. He said the one difference is that all the girl cousins and other girls in the village didn't participate or go to school because they were too busy fetching water for cooking, bathing, washing, hands, and to go to the bathroom. He made the point that when he moved to India as a young kid (his parents were born in India) that he thought of the people I just mentioned as people that were like the ones you'd see in National Geographic... that somehow they were different. When he got there and saw it first hand he realized that they are not different. They are just like us only they don't have the luxury of clean water.
Just by doing the Water Walk, Hubspot donated $40 on my behalf to the #September campaign for Charity: Water. By Tweeting #Inbound13 and # September in the same Tweet, they donate another $2. I don't Tweet, but I tweeted that.
Clean water should be a basic right for everyone. I really think this is something that we can see changed in our lifetime. It isn't just about getting water to people. It is about making sure young kids don't die because of vomiting and diarrhea. It's about freeing up the time of young girls so they can go to school. It is about giving every human the basic dignity of health because health is the greatest asset of the poor because if you are sick and can't work, you can't earn. If you can't earn, you can't eat.
After doing the Water Walk I got to thinking about how I feel like I failed by not writing last night and my perspective changed. Now I am thinking that while I have "Trouble with the Curvy" I don't have trouble with clean water. It makes me want to work in carrying 40lbs weights when I work out on the treadmill from now on and making sure that this time I walk the 3 miles. My troubles are so small in comparison and it was important to me to make sure I made this part of my journey.
<3 Katie
Day 71
205lbs (says the digital scale here... I'll be calibrating mine accordingly when I get back home)
207lbs soaking wet (after swimming I weighed 1.8lbs heavier... it's not just an expression after all!)
Feeling Humbled
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