everybody! i love you! oh my goodness!- a job announcement

I spent some time on youtube last night watching old oscar speeches trying to come up with a way to describe feeling ecstatic. You see, a couple of weeks ago when I found out I got a job, scratch that, when I found out I go THE job, I was ecstatic. I ran around the house whooping and jumping up and down, and if Halle Berry would have been there I would have pulled an Adrian Brody and kissed her right on the lips.Since I found out, I still have rushes of excitement. I'll reach out and grab the arm of my sister/dad/mom/stranger-at-Wal-Mart, and let the realization wash over me, saying, "I got the job!"So what's THE job? On Monday I start work at the American Refugee Committee as their Roving Correspondent. For the last 30 years ARC has been providing humanitarian assistance to refugees and other displaced communities around the world. They currently work in places like Uganda, Thailand, and Haiti, and as one of the only international aid organizations functioning within the country's borders, they are providing critical assistance to communities in Somalia.Next week I'll start writing and shooting photos and video for web content and other publications. You can currently see a lot of what ARC does on their website, and you can follow ARC on twitter and facebook. You'll see there ARC's emphasis on partnership with local communities both with the displaced communities they serve and with the donor and volunteer communities that are reaching out to help. You'll see a lot of communities that desperately need communities like yours and mine to reach out. You'll see a lot of inspiring work done by a lot of inspiring people.I get to be a part of that. I'll be traveling out to the places where ARC works in the world, documenting what I experience and learning as much as I can from the people I meet. And I'll be flying back to Minneapolis and from there meeting American communities that are as much a part of this work as anyone else. I'll be putting it all into writing, photos and video.My job is to witness this incredible stuff done by brave, (extra)ordinary people, and then I get to tell the world about it.My job. Connect to people all over the world. Write/shoot/blog/tweet about it. What a dream. WHAT A DREAM!!!I feel like jumping up and screaming, "EVERYBODY! I LOVE YOU! OH MY GOODNESS!" Of course, sometimes I get so excited I can't formulate words.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cnCMqr1QRQw]I'll let you know as soon as I can where you can see my work online. And meanwhile (and always), I'm still here, still working out how to be alive and talking to you about it here on the ol' blog.