I’ve been trying to rehearse today, but I’m struggling with the lyrics of the song.  Today does not feel like the day to sing songs about the American Revolution.

One more star, one more stripe
Til this bloodshed’s finally through
One more star, one more stripe
Til they come back home to you
One more star, one more stripe
When there’s nothing you can do
If they take all the things
That define what you were, and are,
One more star

— “The Flagmaker, 1775”, Jason Robert Brown

It was announced yesterday that I have stepped down as president of The Perl Foundation (TPF).

Working for a volunteer organisation is exhilarating and a privilege.  Working with volunteers is amazing.  You get to work with talented, passionate people, who have the creativity to change the world in ways that you never imagined were possible.

Working for a volunteer organisation is tiring and debilitating.  Working with volunteers is difficult. You get to work with talented, passionate people, who will fight vehemently for the things that they believe in, not matter what you think of their beliefs.

In order to run a volunteer organisation you need to have the ability to motivate people.  To have the ability to praise, to treat people with respect, and to help people achieve their goals in the community.  To do that I need to have passion, positivity, and humour.  It’s not possible to feel those things all the time, but I need to feel them more often than I feel drained, negative, and suffering from a distinct lack of humour.

I had noticed that I was starting to feel more negative than positive and I do not want that for the community, or for myself.  Making the decision to leave TPF was painful, but I believe it was the right thing to do.  Working with the Perl community has been an important part of my life.  I am, and will always be, grateful for the opportunities I was given. I am in awe of the people I worked with and I look forward to seeing what they will create in the future.