A Blog of Lists, Bullet Points and Photos

August 10, 2014 By Tom

How many different lists and thought processes can I put into a single blog?

Tom’s personal list:

If I keep landing in my office before 6AM with a cup of coffee in hand, I really need to install a dimmer switch for the lights in here.
I need to get my office cleaned up, it’s an embarrassing mess.
I need to start playing with my photography hobby more, there’s so much beauty in my every day life and I miss the DSLR.

Now the good stuff:

I hit a major professional milestone on Friday when I received a call that Nine 13 Inc received a grant from the Finish Line Youth Foundation. Why is it a major milestone?

It’s the first totally competitive grant that we’ve been awarded.
It’s the first totally competitive grant that I personally wrote to be awarded.
It comes at an important time for my organization and will allow us to continue to grow.
It is for operational support versus specific programs, something that is rare these days in the non-profit world.
Back in January I wrote a list of professional goals that I had in 2014 and one of those goals was to receive a grant from this organization.

I’ve had such a positive series of news in the past few months that at times I can’t believe this is real life. As I’ve been writing SMLISLT and hopping around between different chapters, I’m finding writing about some of the early and ugly days of the organization and my career path is really hard as it seems like a lifetime ago. At the same time, writing about the past in the midst of all of this positive stuff happening has made me even more appreciative of the hard/impossible/frustrating/heartbreaking/bumpy path that I’ve been on to get to this point.

Now the fun stuff from this week in a photo list (I would be jealous too):