My Day Job vs. My Passion

OK, so I don't exactly have a job right now.  I guess going to treatment is kind of like having a job but not really because I lose money rather than earn money.  I used to be a bartender and canvasser and also volunteered for lots of different organizations.  I loved the bartending jobs because I got to drink as much alcohol for as little as possible, but hated it because of the sleazy customers.  Canvassing was awesome but it's not a job one can do for an extended period of time. Standing in front of stores and talking with strangers non-stop for 8 hours a day can get pretty exhausting.  9 months into it, I consider myself a veteran.  My passion - aside from wanting to become a concert pianist - sits somewhere in line with canvassing.  I want to be involved in the community, both in America and overseas.

I would love to join the Peace Corps and do so many things to help families in need:

Dehydration and water-borne illnesses are the leading cause of death in impoverished countries.  I would like to dig wells and build water catchment systems for those countries and also teach the people how to dig/build them. I want communities to have sustainable, long-lasting clean water supply near their homes.  We complain about having to get out of our chair to pour ourselves a glass of water, when these people have to walk miles and miles in the blistering heat to a contaminated water source. .  

Women are scrutinized and made subordinate to men, and this makes it difficult for them to take part in everyday life.  I want to teach them vocational skills so they can start their own basket-weaving business and produce income or sources of income. I want to offer them micro-loans so they can buy supplies to build a canoe which, in turn, would allow them to go fishing and bring back food for their village. We need to learn to be grateful and take advantage of the social interactions we have access to.

I want to educate little girls, especially little girls in India:  I want to give them knowledge and skills for opportunities outside of an arranged marriage.  How would you feel if your parents denied you formal education because they have arranged for you a life partner before you could even spell "life partner"?  You would be stuck in the home making babies and doing housework for the rest of your life before your life had even begun.  

For little boys, I want to take away their guns and machetes and give them books and crayons.  What were you doing when you were 7 years old? Not being thrown into the military.

America needs some work too:

I would like to build homeless shelters in which I, along with volunteers, offer homeless people makeovers so that they are presentable for job interviews.  This will increase their self-esteem and hopefully reduce the social stigma attached to the homeless.  Haven't you thought while walking past a homeless person, "Why don't they just get a job?"  Think about it.

I would like to build a home for battered women and children and work to reduce their shame and guilt, and empower them by putting them in school, offering psychotherapy, and weaving them back in to society.  Being a victim is a tough spot to get out of.

I would also like to build an orphanage for Chinese girls and adopt them out to deserving Chinese families so that their race doesn't die out.  I feel like the world is eventually going to be filled with dominantly white, Caucasian people.  What happened to appreciating our roots and living harmoniously among different cultures?

I believe, especially in today's technologically-crazed age, children are not given the space in which they can explore their creative potential.  I want to teach kids art and music so they can discover their potential through different means and hopefully help better express themselves.  If I were to be born several decades from today, I probably would not even have discovered the beauty of piano.  That scares me.

Literacy is a huge issue.  I would like to visit inner cities and teach parents about the importance of education, starting with literacy, so they can better monitor their children's educational progress.  Children can also derive motivation and incentive to improve their performance in school, from their parents' interest and support.

Now, do I call this "goals I can realistically work towards" or "dreams I want to see come true but never will"?  Because they are, in fact, kind of overwhelming and daunting to conceptualize into one life.  I don't know.  Maybe the first one, if I tried really really really hard.