Finding my purpose...

I have always believed that we have a purpose in life. There is a purpose for the relationships we form, the challenges we face, the load we bare, the road we take etc…
I have mentioned that I am in search of my purpose in all this. It has definitely taken me some time. Not that I don’t think I have made a small difference in some way… or at least I hope I have. But I know I have more in me.

Most of you don’t know that I have been “a professional volunteer” (that’s what I call it) for the last 7 years. After I had my kids; that was my purpose. MOST of my volunteer efforts are school related. Of course I did the typical stuff… home room mom, copy team, tutor, class helper, guest reader, event volunteer (bla, bla, bla). These are things I will always do as long as I am able, but I have done a lot of bigger jobs as well.

I started out as a VP of the PPC(pre-school parent club), I spent two years in this position. My job was to fund raise… My proudest accomplishment was creating the 1st edition of the schools cookbook. It was “my baby”. This cookbook was pretty cool. It included favorite family recipes from the entire school(pre-k to 8th grade). It was well received… heck, there’s some tasty stuff in there!

Then one of my best friends was the president of the PTA at the elementary school my kids go to. Knowing Leighanna was heading there for kindergarten the upcoming year and also having seen the “sucker” sign on my forehead… she invites me to a board meeting.
Next thing you know… I was being elected the incoming executive committee secretary 4 months before Leighanna even started school. To this day, I am the ONLY parent to serve as an executive officer without already having a student at the school beforehand. That summer I was put right to work ~ seriously!! But it was good and I enjoyed every minute of it. I learned that my last experience was small potatoes compared to this one. This PTA brings in an average of $150,000 per year… they don’t make that off cookbooks! So here I am in a position that is not in my area of ability(remember, I am a math girl; secretary= my enemies: english, spelling and punctuation). OH SHIT!! I spent one year in this position… where I learned the ins and outs of Microsoft Publisher(I was over the newsletter). I was pretty proud of that… and now I LOVE MS PUBLISHER!


When election time came around again… I simply asked the outgoing treasurer… “well how hard is it?”. (OOPS!) That spring I was elected. I spent two years as treasurer (you can only serve two consecutive terms as an elected officer… PTA rules). I learned how to maneuver Microsoft Excel, Quicken and keep budgets with income and expense categories for SEVERAL separate working committees. I am now an experienced book keeper.


The end of my second term as treasurer was coming and the search was on for five new executive officers to head up the next years executive board. I was being approached for president. Oh, HECK NO! That is one job I did not want. I can’t baby people who are yelling at ME for THEIR mistake. I would have told them where to shove the uniforms that THEY forgot to pick up. Just saying!


So I made a deal with someone… “you take president and I will be your 1st VP”. BAHAHAHAHA! I should have taken the president position. This job was a pain in the ass!! There were literally nights that I never slept… this was BEFORE D(right before D actually). Justin was dx’d a month after our auction. The auction is the main event the 1st vp is in charge of. There are others such as: uniforms, yearbook, falcon festival, 5th grade events, dinner nights ect..., but all those have committee chairs and the vp "oversee's and helps when needed. Obviously, 1st vp is the vice president over ways and means… aka fundraising.
The auction is a lot of work. It is held at the Palmetto Club in my neighborhood. It includes both a silent and live auction for up to 400 guests. I spent that entire summer planning, organizing, letter writing, seeking sponsors and just plain going crazy. ALL while closing up the treasury books and getting taxes and audits done so the new treasurer could take over. Luckily, I had some great help with getting donations and such. The event was a success and I was proud that I could pull it off. However, I wasn’t up for doing it again… especially now that D had entered our lives.

FishHawk Goes Hollywood... that was our theme.

At that point, I planned on taking a break. I had a lot going on. I was still in a fog. I was still devastated. I was still trying to adjust to life with D. BUT!! I ended up getting re-elected as treasurer… long story.



So that leads me to this week… Yesterday was my final audit and my last day as treasurer. This is a bitter sweet time for me. I did not seek election for office. I didn’t even chair a committee.

After 5 years...

I walked away.

It was a tough decision for me. I had planned on chairing 5th grade events for the next two years. But in the end I declined. I leave being the longest running executive officer our PTA has ever had... the next longest would be 3 years. I am still helping, of course, and have already been hard at work researching, calling, pricing for the chair(her name is LORA also... how funny is that?) Lora (the other one, not me) is great. She always has awesome idea's and I look forward to helping her this year.

But still...
In a weird way I am a little heavyhearted. It is hard to walk away from something you have given a lot to for five years. I know I needed a new path, but that does not mean I don’t miss the old one.


So where do I go from here and what does this have to do with my purpose in all this??? I still don’t know for certain, but…

On Tuesday, I attended a gala committee meeting… that’s right, the JDRF gala committee. Once again I find myself thinking I was dealing with small potatoes before. I am small in comparison to the others that were there… mind you, I was 1 of 7 attending besides the ladies that work for JDRF. These are business people who know PEOPLE!!! They are securing table sponsors in the amounts of 3, 5, 8, 10, 15 thousand and up. I don’t know those people… the presidents and CEO’s of companies don’t hang around non working PTA mom’s. Either way, I was welcomed and before I left… I let the JDRF ladies know that my role is going to be more of the worker bee. I can bring in baskets and basket items(I HOPE). I can make phone calls and write letters.
They were good with that… hey, the president’s, CEO’s and business executives attending will need stuff to buy right?


I don’t know if this is my purpose or not. Right now, I am feeling to pretty out of my league. But hopefully I will be able to contribute enough to make a difference.


Next up… I will help out with the walk in some way and I have inquired about becoming part of the support team(I think that’s what it is called) for newly dx'd families. We will see… my purpose it out there somewhere.


P.S. If you have any ideas for Gala stuff, let me know… I am going to need all the help I can get!!!!!! **YIKES!!**