Just Do Good.

“Free from pain, free from scars/free to sing, free from bars/free my dawgs, you’re free to go”

Thirty some people dragged, tip-toed, and bounced themselves into Francis Arevalo aka Allo’s room on a rainy Sunday morning at UBC unsure of what to expect. I got there an hour early to kick it with a good friend I had not seen in a couple of months while he finished his presentation. The first thing I noticed when I walked in was cork boards with pins and string wrapped around them with notes attached. With one glance you could see everything Franics was thinking and feeling and not because he wrote them down on post-it notes.

Leading up to Sunday, there were secret group messages, questions posted and answers discussed, everything was kept hush. No one had the full picture of why we had gathered but we had ideas which was even more important.

Trick question: what do Mega Man, Steph Curry, and Simba have in common? They all played a part in how Francis engages with the world outside of him. He wants to take the best qualities of others and figure out how to use it within himself like Mega Man. He wants to be able to lead and facilitate while doing his own thing and putting on a show like Steph Curry. And he wants to approach the world with the wonder of Simba when he first leaves home. While Francis joked throughout the morning he was practicing for his TED Talk, seeing glimpses of his history was crucial for us to understand why we were in that room and why he wanted us there.

The Goodgetters is his idea, a collective of passionate people in his life to share, create and push each other towards their goals and new things. He wants to cultivate a culture within his numerous friend groups where we can push and support each other. A place where your passions, work, and community interact and intersect.

I personally do not know what the next moves are and do not know where the Goodgetters will be in a year. What I do know is, Sunday is not a one and done thing. I do not personally know everyone gathered in that room yesterday but I do know Francis and know he has a plan and a vision and I cannot wait for what happens. For now, all I know for sure is stay tuned because you do not want to miss what’s next.

If you’re interested in the type of things we reflected on before Sunday feel free to go through these questions we answered:

In what ways would you like to grow in the following areas:
1) music/your preferred medium of expression/current project
2) this artist/musician/human hustle
3) professional skills
4) personal goals
5) goal-setting, productivity and time management
6) teamwork skills
7) stress levels
8) anything you want to do/learn that’s floating in your mind, literally anything

Please answer each of the below in a minimum of 3 sentences.
A) Who, what, and where make you happy?

B) What kind of humour do you like?

C) 3 Favourite Musicians.

D) If you work, what job(s) is it and what does it entail? If you don’t work, how are you spending your time these days?

E) If you go/went to school, where do you go and what do/did you study? If you do/did not, what would you want to study?

F) What extracurricular/extraprofessional involvements do you have?

G) You have a superpower. What is it, and what would your superhero name be?

H) When you are part of a team project, what role do you gravitate towards? What kind of role would you like to get better at?

I) What skills do you have that excite you when you use them?

J) What do you like to do for fun?

K) When do you feel the most misunderstood?

L) Considering everything you know about me, all the people in this group, and really considering your own experience, skill set, values in life, personal/professional trajectories, and your mind, body, and heart, on a scale of 1-10, how much do you trust me, my beliefs and methods of changing the world by positively influencing those around me? Please be honest, you will not hurt my feelings, I promise.
If it is below “5", but not “0" why is it not “0"?
If it is above “5", but not “10", why is it not “10"?

On Sunday, everyone wrote down their passions, goals for work, and what they would do in terms of the greater community through The Goodgetters. One of the things I wrote down in regards to the greater community is to incorporate the Goodgetters into my blog posts and each week shed some light on something cool I come across, whether it is a show, a book, or just something that aligns with a passion of mine. Look for a recap of cool things from January later this week. And if there’s something you think I need to check out this year feel free to tweet me, leave a comment on the Goodgetters page, or comment on this page.

I left the room filled with inspiration and a bounce in my step. However, the initial image never left me. The string, pins, and cork boards. I could not help but think that in time each pin on those cork boards will represent everyone in that room on Sunday and a string will be spun through each. The amazing thing about a single string is how much power it can offer. A web, when spun through wheels within wheels, Archimedes was said to have lifted a whole warship of men with his own strength, just with some strings and pulleys.

I’m not sure I believe that but then again we will not be alone when we are pulling, will we?