While looking for information on a different non-profit service org today, I came across the new site of the Episcopal Urban Intern Program (EUIP). For those of you that don’t know, applying to the EUIP in 2007 led to me moving down to Los Angeles in August of 2007, though not as a participant in the EUIP. One of the reasons I wasn’t selected was because of my age. The EUIP is designed for folks approx 20-30 years old. I was turning 31 in Auguest of 2007 (when it would have begun). The program directors job was to choose good candidates who would have a good shot of forming a good community. The interns that were selected were all between 21 and 24 that year (if I remember correctly). I knew when I applied though, that I was pushing the age range, so I wasn’t too bummed out. Plus I ended up getting offered a different opportunity to intern in Los Angeles through the Episcopal Church. While that internship didn’t end up working out as well as I’d hoped it would, it was still a valuable experience for me.
This year, another one of my friends was accepted into a new intern program affiliated with the Campus Ministry at Cal State – Channel Islands…the Abundant Table Farm Project. She luckily still fit under the 30 yr old ceiling most of the intern programs have.
Anyway, all this got me thinking about those of us in our 30s or 40s (or more) that are searching for ourselves, our spirituality, our intentionality. Where can we participate in these kind of things? I know my age group is more likely to be more settled into family life or a career (though maybe less so into careers in the current state of the economy), but there are many of us that are still searching for our vocation…or a vocational change. Where do we go to find our community now that we are out of school?
I think this is something that I’ll add to my list to explore in the next year.
