Pieces of the Movement

So, pretty much completely forgot about the blogging. But I am going to make up for it! I wrote this reflection paper after SLI literally on the airplane.. Enjoy!


SLI 2011 
Pieces of the Movement

SLI for me has been one of the most influential things I’ve ever done in my life.  I can’t even begin to describe the impact the conference has made on myself.  Three central themes we enlightened during my short 3 days. One a day isn’t that bad I guess. There is a revolution in the undertaking and I can see that clearly now. 
The first theme passion will allow for impact.  This has been the case for many generations but until SLI I didn’t really understand this truth. Just has the American Revolution or the civil rights movement, passion was the drive behind change. Obviously we can’t just go around starting wars since we live in the 21st century; but we can inflict change through movements and policy changes. This is what us as a national Bonner network are trying to do.  Emotions are the driving force in our lives, whether it be the feeling of hunger or love, they are at the root of any action taken at any time 24/7 365 days a year till we die. Now that I’ve stated that; how are we supposed to harness these emotions to impact our own goals, instead of that of others?  The solution I think is to be fearless. At any time of any day you need to be able to step outside of your comfort zone to truly see the kind of person you are, away from the façade used to fool others. Once this true passion is ignited, an explosive force will be at your disposal. 
With passion comes the potential to do anything. With enough passion and charisma anyone has the power to do anything they want.  We have  also seen this in the history books for various reasons. However, there is a problem, us as a generation has become jaded.  Passion is a dying part of our lives as witnessed in the lack of intimacy in relationships
Now what it comes down to making significant impacts, really making changes and getting results; the solution is always, who you know and not what you know. Networking has been revealed to me on an entirely different level as I have orchestrated and witnessed complete strangers bond on a deeper level in 3 day than I have with some of my fraternity brothers that I have known for 3 years day in and day out.  This passionate networking has the power to inflict the next great big change for a better America. 
In order to increase this power, we need to do more! Yes local service is vital to our community; we need to keep doing this. However, we still need to do more. Bonner is transforming into a national network that will eventually be completely united to combat central issues as one massive movement.  We need to work like a colony of ants.  Every ant has its own duty, all of them are doing completely different seemingly meaningless tasks. Even though it seems that way, the ants have a trick up their ant sleeves, because while each individual ant is working diligently on their own tasks, they are aware of the other all goal, which is to protect and serve the colony. Every ant is aware of what each other is doing and is doing his delegated part towards the over all well being of the ant network. 
This is what we need to focus on in the next coming years, local service with national awareness of what the rest of the Bonner nation…the Bonner network is doing all around us. We need to be more aware of the central issues that we are working on as an overall Bonner Program to really create a driving force in this scary world we live in. Individually we are pieces of the movement, but when combined into one focal picture… we are the movement.