From our summer interns.
Everybody has a purpose. Each person’s is unique—a contribution that you spend a lifetime making, one that only you can deliver. It is essential that we give our share back to the world, but in some cases, we fall short.
I struggle everyday to reach my potential, and sometimes I just sit and wonder if I’m working towards the right direction. Art, math, and business have all pulled me towards their separate directions, but I’ve always felt that something was missing. My purpose was something a tiny bit different. I couldn’t find it though.
During my last year of high school, I went through a series of small revelations that led me to a new direction. The first: life is short. The second: wandering is better than standing still sometimes. I needed to explore, and a few months later, a new door opened. My uncle, Scott Griffin, introduced me to PackH2O, and after a few emails, I was scheduled to intern for a summer at their office. A year went by, and then I was back the next summer interning there. Over this time period, I witnessed something interesting. For the first time in my life, I saw a business that really fostered compassion. We were selling something intangible, and our customers were buying selflessly. There was no such thing as corporate greed at work here. Everybody was working solely towards one purpose: aiding the water transportation crisis. I was surprised, and the more I worked, the more I realized that something had changed within me. I felt happy coming into work everyday. I woke up excited when I thought of the people that we were helping and the wonderful people I got to work with. Is this what it feels like when you are fulfilling your part.
After thinking deeper into my experience so far at PackH2O, I now realize what added to this huge feeling of fulfillment. By helping people transport water more easily from their well to their homes, they have a little bit more time to do something else. With this time, they can learn; they can help their families; they can work on their farms. They can take steps towards achieving their potential, where they didn’t have time to before. It is the first step towards not worrying about basic needs—another step towards development. I am a small part of this huge effort, but it still has a deep meaning to me. It is something innate, inherent, and intrinsic that I must accomplish.
I can’t wait to see where this project will take me and where it will take those who we are trying to help. I feel as if we are moving as one person; I’m not working for myself. There is some family out there that needs me everyday, and with every action I take, I have the opportunity to help them. Working at PackH2O, I can seize that opportunity.
Juli