When I chose to run for Student Council my freshman year, I never knew the way it would make my heart leap out of my chest with an overwhelming sensation I can only describe as extraordinary. The fast paced whirlwind of Enloe Charity Ball has swept me off my feet since the very first meeting, and I’m still spinning. I am now on my third Charity Ball, and I can say with absolute confidence that every year is different. Every year. I come in with knowledge and lessons I didn’t have the year before, and I learn new things everyday. As I get older, those above me leave, my peers and I step into their place, and I begin to see the passion that I always admired in them starting to show in myself and those around me. Out of all the things I have learned this year, one stands starkly against the rest. It’s not about the money.
The $200,000 that we are aiming to raise will make a everlasting impact at IGNITE, and I can not think of a more deserving cause. But it is not the endgame, it is a part of the journey that has no end. An odyssey to impact the world around us, and all of us are sprinting as fast as we can to make positive change. The smile on a little girl’s face at the Raleigh Wake Partnership will always be worth more to me than the $180,000 we raised, just as playing Uno with the IGNITE members will be worth more than any amount of money we raise here. The people that Enloe helps, the bonds that we make along the way, that is our purpose. That is why I’m here.
Our purpose in life often alludes us, dipping and ducking out of sight as we stand just out of reach, trying so hard to jump up and grab it that we do not see that the answer is within ourselves. It would be so easy to settle down at a winning moment and travel no further. It would be easy to stop running to soothe our aches and pains as we watch the light trickle further away, settling in our own normality. Those who stop lose the wisdom of perseverance, and the real reason that that the coveted message teasingly dances past our fingertips. There is no ultimate answer to your purpose. The strength and messages you learn along the journey for that universal truth, the things you change, the people you help, they are the answer. I know I found purpose the day I felt my heart leap and as I carry on I am constantly looking for more moments like that one. The light we all see is only there to motivate us to keep going. Your purpose is the journey, so keep running.
Angela Lewis
Executive Service Officer
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