Philanthropy

We had a wonderful International Affairs presentation today. Normally they're fairly interesting but overall you forget about them somewhere around 15 minutes later. But this was really great. The man was the chief executive of The Institute of Philanthropy in London (but he's a New Yorker) and my co-year invited him to speak to us. He was a great presenter, probably because he makes a living out of it, teaching "high net-worth individuals" how to give their money away wisely.
It was wonderful to hear a man speaking about the kind of life that every UWC student should have, but I've never actually seen in practice. His is the life that I wouldn't mind living, doing something good for the world while traveling and not doing too badly money-wise either. He said he woke up every morning glad to go to work, and the main payment for his work was the feeling of having truly helped someone.
We had a great discussion in the evening, 15ish people came to talk to him about philanthropy and the social, political, economic and philisophical issues surrounding it - the idea of treating cause rather than effect, or the welfare state, or the role of government or the UN...
I'm inspired. I now know that the kind of life I want actually does exist, and if I play my cards right, I could actually end up following my wildest dreams.