In the last 2 posts of “Agents of Change”, I have featured individuals who will all be traveling this summer to somewhere far away from home. However, one of the most important things I have learned this year is that we don’t always need to go far. There are Agents of Change who are making differences everyday, in their own ways, in their very own communities.
Grace Boyle (Blog: Small Hands, Big Ideas Twitter: @gracekboyle)
Grace is the source of a lot of my inspirations. When I first discovered her blog, I spent the whole night going through all the entries, amazed by her creativity, energy and sincerity. She is an amazing person that knows what she wants in life, driven by the right values and caring about the right things . She’s busy and involved – having two blog/online projects on top of her full-time job, working with Ladies Who Launch, helping her mother market her women’s retreat to Italy, and attending meetups. On her blog, you can read about the “What Inspires You” series, her “A Photo A Day” project , and everything else that she finds interesting or touching in life. Grace loves connecting with people in the most authentic sense and if it wasn’t for her who reached out to me, I wouldn’t have met the many other amazing people that I know now as well. My words can’t do her/her blog justice – go read it yourself.
Fion Ho (Blog: Everyday Living… Twitter: @fionho)
Fion is one of my closest girlfriends and I’ve come to know her intimately over the years. She is one passionate girl with a burning fire buried deep inside in her heart. She also believes that greatness is everywhere and we just need to pause and believe in it. Currently doing her Master of Environmental Studies, she specializes in urban planning and aspire to (re)build communities to help connect individuals. Involved with Big Brother Big Sister, she spends lunch with Kayla, a 9-year-old, every Tuesday. Fion has recently renovated her blog, decided to live the life she wants to live, and for the first time, stepping out of her comfort zone and being excited about the unknowns . Let’s wish her all the best as she finishes her master thesis, looking for opportunities to teach English in China, and making big jumps for her bright future.
Eudora Lee (Blog: Dreams Work Twitter: @euds)
Eudora is one of the most resilient girls I know. You won’t always find optimism in her blog, occasionally she complains and gets mad, but it guarantees nothing but authenticity and honesty. I knew her since high school, and I love her for always saying what needs to be said without wasting time worrying what others will think of her. Finishing her Master in Education, she believes that “Education without love is merely a lengthy instruction; without wisdom, propaganda; without hope, a history; without example, a joke.” Eudora currently teaches English through drama in Hong Kong. She’s definitely an important role model for these young girls she teaches and I like that she’s showing them there are more important things than being pretty and popular. For the rest of the year, she will be working on other community projects, using drama to teach, to heal, and to inspire. Oh, and she told me she wants to publish a book and change the world.
This concludes my “Agents of Change” series for now. The take-home message is that if you want to see change, you must be change. The good news is, there aren’t rules – just be yourself, do what you can do, read and talk to people, find your passion, try your best everyday, then repeat that the next day. Remember, we all have a lit candle and it’s our job to spread it. I imagine a part 4 to this series as I meet more new people or convince more Agents of Change to blog, whichever happens first. Thank you for reading. =)
