I have the best friends in the world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsPUeg1IeXc
In less than 24 hours, I had my Big Birthday Wish goal nearly wrapped up. So what then? Do we hang it up, bask in the warmth of small successes? No! We go even bigger.
With encouragement from pals here at IJM, I’m moving my birthday goal to $2700 - about half the cost of one rescue operation to free people from slavery and sex trafficking. One operation can free one person or hundreds.
Honestly, I had completely forgotten my birthday is next week.
It can’t be due to age just yet – I’m not that old - but I think the busyness of this year threw me off. But it’s here. On May 23, I turn 27.
And there’s not much significant about the number 27 in life. I guess I’m officially moving into my “late twenties.” But working at International Justice Mission, 27 is a pretty big deal.
There are 27 million slaves in the world today. I’ve spit out that number so many times since I first joined up with IJM more than three years ago, but this year I took real pause. Just try to picture 27 million people. That’s everyone you know, everyone you’ve met, everyone you’ve loved – times a thousand. It’s the great travesty of our current world, and we’ve got to take more action to end slavery today.
So with just a week to my birthday, I want you to help me take a stand: I’m raising $270 in my IJM Big Birthday Wish campaign to help fund rescue and restoration around the world. Help me meet the goal, and together we’ll bring freedom to those in desperate need.
I did it. I bought a smart phone. I’ve been on my basic $35/month Virgin Mobile plan for years, but it was time to join the future.
But my momma ain’t raise no fool. I did my research.
I sat down one Saturday afternoon and scoured the web for all the resources out there. As it turns out, any article about “how to buy a smart phone” was likely written in 2007 – back when everyone else first made that choice. Now, they’re too ubiquitous. Everyone knows the advantages. Most places and most people just assumed I’d get an iPhone and be done with it.
So I started that direction. User surveys and friends agreed that getting an iPhone with Verizon was the best option: coverage, ease of use, customer service, everything. But even when I played around with Verizon’s site, even with the cheapest plan I could get, I was still paying $90 a month – plus being locked in to a 2 year contract. (And contracts make me feel icky.)
I looked at other major carriers. I looked at simpler, no-contract plans, like Straight Talk. I looked at buying an unlocked phone, but that seemed sketchy.
When it came down to it, I had to evaluate what I really wanted:
I debated for a long time about how important coverage was. On Virgin, I get great coverage most places, but then none anywhere somewhat rural (like my parents’ house). But I’ve been getting along fine with that. I spend most of my time in DC and coverage here is great. When I’m at my parents, I’m doing other things, so a phone’s less important.
I ended up back where I started – with Virgin Mobile. I could have gotten an iPhone there, but it’d be $350 and locked to Virgin. They have lots of other smart phone options now, though, so I compared and read reviews and compared again until landing here (ba ba ba baaaa) the HTC One V. It got great reviews everywhere I looked and has all the features I needed. It was $120 on Virgin’s site, but a quick Amazon search got me the same phone for $109 (the price has since risen). Done. Then I cruised around for cases – nothing fancy yet – and got an OtterBox.
I don’t care much about Android versus iOS or Windows or whatever (this one runs on Android). I still just need it to do those basic things. And I don’t want to become one of those folks who cannot sit in stillness without fiddling with a phone, so not having anything fancy gives me boundaries.
And how have these last two weeks been? Fine. I’m sure I’m not getting the most out of this machine, but I know how to work Instagram (mostly) and check my email. I downloaded a word search game and a Mint app. I’m good on that.
But best of all? I’m still only paying $35 a month – unlimited data, text, everything. Who’s smart now? #winner
Here’s my reading list for the year:
Welcome to five years’ worth of impulse book-buying. After doing a big clear-out in July, I’ve got 21 books on my shelf that I’ve bought but never read.
These guys either came home with me from some budget book store or were given by caring friends. Lots of others have been read and shared, but for whatever reason these have just waited on the shelf - reminders of perfectly good intentions but very little initiative.
We’ve got quite a lot of Africa focus, some reflections on faith, a few practical ones, and a random selection of fiction. That blue fatty – Adam Levin’s The Instructions – I bought from McSweeney’s for the sheer challenge of it: 1030 pages covering just 4 days of a little Jewish boy’s life. Dang.
So this year, I’m excited to prioritize reading what I own, to curb my impulse buying, and maybe to discover some gems that have been on my shelf all along. Let’s do this!
I’ve never been good at setting goals, but really respect how thoughtful folks here are about casting vision. A lot of my new friends in DC set themes for the year, taking time to really plan who they’d like to be by December 31. I dig it. So here’s how I’m living 2013:
The Year of Scott: Honesty, Simplicity, Authenticity: Get a Smart Phone
Pretty good, eh? In a way, it’s all about building on my momentum from Uganda in this new context of DC.
Along with the overarching, three-part theme, I came up with five tangible goals that will make me happy in 2013:
Maybe this is a lot to ask of 2013, but with one month down it’s actually going pretty well, especially being intentional about honesty and authenticity. Here’s hoping I can keep pace for the rest of the year!
As I dig deeper into my new life in DC–and process the lessons I learned in my two years abroad–for some reason I keep coming back to Brene Brown.
TED Talks were a huge part of my social and intellectual life in Uganda; I got to share and discuss these brilliant speeches with awesome friends and travelers each week. And I think these two from researcher/storyteller Brene Brown will always be standouts. Partially for their charm, but mostly for their reminders that shame is common and vulnerability is key. As I make new friends in this new city, these are the lessons I need to remember most.
High school students intimidate me: their defiant attention spans, their feigned confidence, their whiffs of self-consciousness and body spray. Nearly ten years after I left, being in a high school still gave me jitters.
Invited by my good friend Teri, I was speaking at the North Carolina Association of Student Councils’ Central District Fall Conference. After learning leadership all day, I was their closer. My story would need to inspire this group to Make an Impact – in their schools, in the world, wherever.
And I spied a few freshmen already fading in the front row.
Suddenly evident again: I was never cool. And taking the stage after a full day of their blank high school stares, all I wanted was for these 200 students to think I was, or at least that I had been. Ten years their senior, I was putty.
At the same time, I was confident in what I was to tell them: the lessons leaving home and living “over there” could beat into a young man. These were student leaders – kids with potential – and this was stuff they’d need to know.
Here’s what I said: Continue reading
