Holi Festival and the grateful feeling for this experience
Today I was reading Bernadette's blog and I read about her personal story for her IBM Corporate Service Corps application and it inspired me to also write about mine. Our CSC India 38 team joined Veronika's village for Holi festival celebration. Holi celebration's reasons and beliefs are many. The one I can personally connect with is the "good against evil" part of it. I believe we all have good and evil part inside ourselves and it depends on what part we feed the most to determine how and who we are in the end.
We left hotel around 10am IST, all the 10 of us took cars to Veronika's residential complex and as soon as we arrived there she was there waiting for us with a basket of colorful powder and also put some colors on everyone of us, which was a really warming and wonderful reception! As we entered the complex, we found all these folks dancing, playing around, having so much FUN and enjoying applying - or sometimes throwing - the colors and water on each other. We were all so excited! And the party began for us too. We danced, laughed, played, put colors on each other, we also got into the artificial waterfall and played with some of the families that were there.
The party was amazing and it made me think about this experience once again and take a moment to thank IBM CSC team, my IBM GBS Department and my manager for this amazing opportunity. In this moment of gratitude, I started remembering how everything started.
I applied three times before for IBM CSC and in those times I was submitting my application focusing on results, performance and purely facts. I was not being very personal or letting my feelings come to it. This 4th time that I was selected - FINALLY - was the first time when I let my feelings be expressed in my words of the application. I explained how much it truly meant to me to be there.
Since I started working in 2006 the main thing that I kept asking myself was: "Am I doing the difference in the world or am I just one more person?". Then, after a while, I also got mentored by AMAZING professionals which made me think one additional thing: "How can I giveback all the investment on me?" and the answer was pretty simple: I wanted to help other IBMers and other people too! I always caught myself thinking that I would like to do some volunteering activities outside of Brazil too - I participated of some volunteering events in the past in Brazil, mainly with caring kids - and I could not stop thinking of applying it again, but to be honest, I almost gave up submitting because it felt like I would not be accepted again.
So, destiny - or should I say Karma since I am immersed in India? - gave me a second chance by having someone send an e-mail asking all the people that started filling the CSC application form to ensure to submit it soon as it would be pastdue soon. If it was not this e-mail I would have given up - REALLY! Imagine that? If it was not this e-mail I would not even be here!
Well, I'm glad I did! In my daily work I found great ways to help other IBMers as a way to payback all investment and mentoring I received in the past by leading some initiatives in my department for young talents and also by participating of Women Empowerment activities. And here in CSC I will work with READ India organization that also works with Youth and Women empowerment in India Villages in need of an organization to help them find their way by providing training, material, access to internet and books. What I love the most about READ is that their mission is to teach them how to start, and then let them develop themselves. As the maturity and independence increases for this community, READ stands by and let them grow and let them pursue their own challenges by themselves.
I could not be more grateful than I am to be here. Because I am not just immersed in a whole different culture, developing myself or traveling to this amazing place, but I am also fulfilling my dream to make a difference to the world! And... That is why I celebrated Holi: my goodness won against my evil.
Happy Holi!
