I Love My Job Because...

To Mile High Optimist Club (CO/WY)

My name is Elijah and I have been a member of the mile-high optimist club for three years. This letter, or article is a truly special opportunity to hear how being an optimism has had a profound positive impact on me, and the youth in our community.

This is a call to action, and a thank you all in one, to everyone who has ever been an optimist. I hope that this will re-motivate us to see just how big our impact can be.

"Optimism is a service club dedicated to bringing out the best in children." That is what the president of the Mile-high Optimist club and the owner of The Denver Book Binding told me, in response to my inquiry about her beautiful plaque with the word optimism on it. We had just met when I asked, I was there to meet with the Denver Book Binding and see if we could work on a project. I was hoping to get a hardcover for my children's book, Betsy The Bird published by Cauzmics Publishing. It was great to have the project done by The Denver Book Binding, they are the best in the business, and our whole team loved the beautiful cover. More importantly, before leaving I filled out an application, and soon I was a mile-high optimist.

Three years later, I am so grateful the optimist plaques are so beautiful, and that being a children's book author for Cauzmics led me to become a Mile High Optimist.

For me, describing the impact that being an optimist has is easy, I can see it clearly from the impact my club members have had on me. The motivation to write this letter came in a flash when I was confronted with an uncomfortable truth. I had barely been aware of how much my optimist activity had positively impacted me.

It finally clicked that with a joke here, and timely practical advice here, I had slowly but surely taken a group of strangers and turned them into my friends, and soon after, this group of strangers became more like my family.

It did not take long before we were making a positive impact on each other, and then together we were able to make a positive impact on our community.

It was silent, the strength and the depth of the bond we were creating with each other as a club. Every meeting that we gathered to talk about our community and how we could make a positive impact, made an impact on me.

As an optimist, I was starting to see that the wheels of inspiration turn both ways. In our club, and in the CO/WY district, the members are further ahead in their careers and lives and say I can give inspiration to them for the future. But my wheels of inspiration spin at every meeting, town hall, and conference when I interact with many wise, vibrant people ON FIRE to make the world a better, more positive place. After the CO/WY optimist convention in 2018, I had discovered that being an optimist was bout giving, and I also discovered that the more I gave the more I loved life.

Since 2018 the Mile-high club has raised thousands of dollars on fundraisers (including an online auction that our club does each year), we volunteered at amazing optimist events like brain bowl, oratorical contest, and my personal favorite Tri-Star basketball. We have worked alongside and with other clubs to raise money to buy underwear for homeless individuals, raise money for school supplies, and more positive optimist fundraisers.

Currently, Mile-high optimist hopes to be associated with our JOI clubs, which we believe is a phenomenal way to make an impact and bring out the best in youth. JOI clubs or junior optimist international clubs are just like adult clubs, but for students. Junior optimist clubs empower the youth, we teach the students how to fundraise, organize, and create change in their schools and communities.

Since COVID, there has certainly been a need for more optimism. We have also seen just how community strengthens all of us. As our world and our communities navigate change and healing during these times, I think we all should think of optimism. Not just the word, but the programs, the clubs, and the people that make up the organization of Optimist International, and ask yourself, could this be something for me.

If so, get online, type in optimist international, and fill out an application for your local club, and find out for yourself the impact that you can have.

I love my job because being a writer at Cauzmics Publishing led me to become a Mile-high Optimist.

I hope you love this story because it leads you to become an optimist as well!