By: Babā Yim

Personally, there was a lot of nervousness about how I made it in and if I am qualified to sit in the company of the others in our newly hatched hui. My key takeaways from our Launch Retreat in February really helped to ease that nervousness and got me on track with renewed confidence and mahalo.

The first big takeaway I’ll call “open naʻau.” The majority of the activities that we engaged in together put us in situations and conversations of vulnerability. This allowed people to openly share personal stories which helped us to build an almost instant pilina that felt good. Sharing laughter and shedding tears brought us together and began to uncover how our strengths and weaknesses as individuals will become valuable assets to the collective as we take this journey together. As our time as a cohort goes on, I encourage all of us to continue to take each step with an open heart, open mind, and ultimately, open naʻau.

“New Horizons” is my other big takeaway. Being able to sit in the wisdom shared in session with Norma Wong refocused my sights on the “horizons,” and I use the plural because although there is one horizon, depending on our action, or inaction today, the horizons become many. Another example of horizons that were revealed during the launch was the opportunity to meet and talk to the Forum of Fellows who joined in welcoming us to the Omidyar Fellows program. Hearing about all of the amazing things that those before us are doing now has given me a bright horizon of possibility that I can steer my waʻa toward with greater confidence.

It is with deep mahalo and open naʻau that I invite us all to imagine bright horizons as we dive into our next sessions. If the first session was any indication of what is to come, I can’t wait for the next episode. 

Me ke aloha a me ka ʻoiaʻiʻo.