Why I am here...

 Today I have been doing some work on clarifying my vision for this site, for my role here and what I want to accomplish.  I am driven today by the work of Simon Sinek and his work captured in the book Start With Why.

I want to give some back story to how I got here.  I think my journey starts with being pigeon-holed in the educational systems Special Education track in Oregon USA primarily because they misinterpreted the fact that I could not speak English as a sign of developmental delay.  I stayed on this track until the 10th grade where through some slight of hand while changing schools I was offered a true education.  

Prior to this I was merely being housed and not educated in any way.  When I entered a more traditional educational system at 16 years of age, I had little foundation to work with and 3 years to make up the difference in order to graduate on time. I had little time for self pity and set to working myself out of the hole I was in. This started with 3 basic questions:

1. Where am I
2. Where do I want to be
3. What is the next step I can take now to get me there

This has become my go-to tool for starting any problem solving efforts. learning better reading and comprehension skills, learning math, science, history, learning how to write a paper...  all of this happened in 3 years.  With the help of early and late make up classes and a summer at Oregon State University hoste Upward Bound program I was able to graduated on time. 

As you can imagine there were a lot of deficiencies that I have had to address to bridge the gap between where I was and where I want to be.  The targets have moved ahead continuously (this being one of those target moves). Fast forward to today I have a bachelors in science and have been employed as a data professional for 18 years with 10 years in IT in different roles leading up to this job. 

In this climb I have shared what I know and have learned with anyone who was interested along the way.  I have seen the value of helping and being helped by others along the way and have grown to love the process.  In engage it in almost every opportunity I have.   I have realized in each engagement that this is something worth pursuing.  "The 8th Habit From Effectiveness to Greatness" By Stephen R. Covey speaks to this specifically.

This is my calling.  This is my WHY.  I get the most value out of life when I share what I have learned about how to find a path forward and ways of making it happen. 

"i am not responsible for the world.  I am only responsible for those I have been given" -unknown

Here is what I propose to do with my time here.

WHY I am Here:  I believe that people are stronger together.  The best way to build a team is to do your part in taking care of the person to your left and to your right.  That is how the strongest teams work.

HOW I want to serve: This happens when you learn and share what you learn.  there is a saying that the best way to learn is to teach.  so I teach what I know, what I have learned to help me understand it better, also to help those that are for me to care for.

WHAT is my method:  I share in specific ways.  I want to know WHERE the people want to go. I want to know that they are DOING something to get there.  I also want to know what they already KNOW.  At that point I put what I know or have to offer and focus it in on what they want to accomplish and then provide it as assistance.  I do so with the understanding up front though that they will help others when they can and at some point when I ask for assistance that they try to assist others as they move through their development.