NDA Conference Thoughts

Sunday, February 14, 2010 at 9:12am

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. -Gandhi

That was one of the many quotes from our AmeriCorps conference yesterday that stuck with me. We listened to a couple Notre Dame Sisters and a Congressman from Maryland, Elijah Cummings. His speech was about his journey from special ed in elementary school to law school and then becoming a Congressman. It was very inspiring and he had quite a few words of advice for educators like us at Notre Dame AmeriCorps. He really had a lot of positive energy and his delivery was much like that of a preacher - which even got a few responses from the audience.

Some of the thoughts he left me with were the following:

"Never mistake a comma for a period." Even if you get what you've dreamed about, there could still be more to life. More to achieve, more to learn, more to teach, etc.

This other thing he said seemed to me to be so true: We have a culture of mediocrity. When something is tough in college, we just stay away from it and do something easier. What we should do is strive for excellence instead and tackle any challenges that come our way.

"Plan for success"

"Know yourself and be true to yourself."

A lot of people think that it takes a group to make a change or start something. But it only takes one person + commitment and dedication.

Now that you've read Elijah's words: "Store THAT in your DNA!"