A New Year

Well folks, I'm off to Philadelphia today. What can I say about the last month-and-a-half in California except that it has been totally awesome. I got healthy again through good diet and exercise, reconnected with a lot of friends and family, and really stepped up my involvement with HealthCare Volunteer.

For the entire month of December, I worked on 2 grant proposals to the San Jose Healthy Neighborhoods Venture Fund to get a total of $300,000 to help us start a non-profit dental clinic in San Jose. This was the first time I applied for a grant and these grants were daunting. We had to build an operating model for the clinic, research the needs for a clinic of this type, and explain how we were going to be effective. It was a great experience from start to finish: attending the RFP meeting, working with various people on different aspects of the grant, and finally delivering the grant which required me to spend a full day at City Hall in San Jose. The next day, we got verbal support from our local state senator for our project.

I've also set a New Years Resolution: to be more optimistic. I think last year's was to stay healthy and finish my year in India on a positive note. I think I accomplished that with no major illneses and I can say that my year in India was the best of my life. Two years ago, it was to 'stretch out', meaning that I wanted to get involved in new things and breakdown mental barrriers that were limiting me from doing wacky things. I think I achieved this goal too by going to India, switching to the Biotech field, and getting more involved in HealthCare Volunteer. This year, I want to have a more positive attitude and believe that things can happen. I'm not sure if I'm a pessimist or a realist, but I like to understand the pros and cons of things before getting into them. But in any case, the goal for 2009 will be to tilt myself more towards an optimist.

So it's back to the E. Coast for me, and I'm hoping for a great experience.