Dissatisfied and Ready

By Fare Olagbaju

I smile when I reflect on my journey from Lagos, Nigeria, to the West End of Cincinnati. My upbringing laid the foundation for my personal growth and deliberately conscious way of life. From a young age, in spite of the rebukes I received from elders who believed children were to be seen and not heard, I realized that questions are more important than answers. I stood out among my peers because I actively sought to learn more about the socio-economic mechanisms behind fast-paced Lagos, and the close-knit communities it comprised of. I could not come to terms with what I saw as my compatriots’ apathy about the curious state of our nation. However, as I grew older and became more cognizant of my relative privilege in society, I began to realize that the average Nigerian’s top priorities were not insight and enlightenment, but survival and sustenance.

The apathy I once perceived at home has come back as I leave the collegiate bubble and immerse myself in the “real world.” I left Nigeria at the age of seventeen to broaden my perspective of the world, but in the U.S., I have come to observe that people have been stripped of a sense of human dignity; in the land of the free and the home of the brave, I have found that many people still struggle to survive and sustain. My curiosity pushes me to pose the question, “Why?” But in my four and a half years in the United States, I have found that the inequality is not hard to see, especially for someone who looks like I do.

It has been a struggle to discern for myself who I am, but this year there is a new identity that I have taken on: I am a Vincentian. I have been called to live a holy life, to be humble, and to be of service to the poor. With the injustice and lack of love in the world, I have found that it is easy to burn out, especially when one takes on such a calling at the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Dissatisfaction is a good thing, to not be content with societal inequities and always strive to foster hope for those who live on the margins.

So far, this year of service has led me to appreciate the human condition much more. In this year of transition and discernment, I feel as though I am standing at a vantage point. I see similarities between my new environment and my place of origin and cannot help to quench the urge to find my niche in our complex society. Simplicity has taught me to not worry, but to embrace discomfort and search for avenues to continuously learn and grow.

Over the course of my lifetime, I would like to bring people together to help build frameworks that enable communities to learn, grow, and hold leaders accountable. I want to go beyond helping our neighbors in need. I would like to search for alternatives to the current mechanisms that keep my neighbors in need.

 

To learn more about VVC, visit http://bit.ly/learnVVC. 

Hailing from Lagos Nigeria, Fare is a contemplative and curious individual, especially in subjects of Economics, Politics, Science, Arts, and Poverty. Aside from his questions and books, Fare is also sustained by chicken, music, bagels, and a profound sense of chill.

Discerning a Year of Service

By Rene Betance

Looking back, it now seems funny that I thought I was never going to do a year of service. In my time at Xavier University, I was part of the “social justice crowd.” This group of people included a number of folks who were pursuing a year of service after graduation. I thought of myself as the exception to that rule. While I wholeheartedly believed in spending a year in intentional community, pursuing conversations about our faith, morals, and the social justice, I viewed a year of service like a parenthesis, a pause in my life. Instead of heading off directly into the workforce or grad school, it would serve as more procrastination from the “real world.” I am restless. I can’t pause! There’s always work to do and we need to get going. I don’t have time to pause, grab a shovel, and get digging.

Yet, I sit here writing this blog post from a desk at St. Vincent de Paul – Cincinnati, in month 4 of my year of service. What happened between then and now is my discernment; perhaps without that discernment, I wouldn’t have truly learned the lesson of contemplation and the value of a year of service. As someone who constantly battles an inherent disposition to view things in black and white, a year of service helps me see the gray in the world. Sometimes in that constant pursuit of an ideal–in my case, justice–we can really forget to slow down and reassess. Maybe the best example of this is the parable of Babies in the River. In that moment of relentless pursuit, we can forget to look around and discern where our gifts are best utilized, what the world needs and where God is inviting us.

In college, I was ready to dive into that river to get the babies. A year of service, specifically the Vincentian Volunteers of Cincinnati, helps to calm me and truly discern. Do I want to be someone who is taking the babies out of the river or do I want to go up the river and find the source of the problem? Taking the time to consider this question is essential to my life. The answer will dictate my future.

I believe that we all need to answer big questions in our lives. Our best selves demand that we carefully consider our future. We must be intentional about who we want to be in the world. I loved going to college; Xavier helped challenge and empower me in inexplicable ways. But as an undergraduate student with so much going on at once (social life, school, involvement, future plans, family, parties, etc.), it is hard to say that college students have appropriate time to fully discern. For us to be able to make the best decision possible, we need time and space. A year of service really provides that time and space. In other words, consider a year of service.

To apply for VVC, visit http://bit.ly/VVCapplication.

Rene Betance spent his first few years in Chihuahua, Mexico, before bouncing around Texas and Ohio. The Xavier grad has a knack for conversation, will tell it like it is, and has never been sarcastic in his life.