My Reality Check Bounced! - Jason Ryan Dorsey [14]
Ben was awed watching so many diverse people working together to unite and improve the world. After living throughout Europe and the United States as a child, Ben understood why this international teamwork was so needed. He took all the free UN literature he could get his hands on, and asked Leslie lots of questions on the walk home.
Like delegates at the UN, Ben was concerned about the genocide extinguishing thousands of lives overseas. He was also concerned that young people his own age were dying in other countries because they didn’t have clean drinking water. He was concerned that innocent kids as young as six and seven years old were being sold into slavery. But what could he do? He was cut off from his family and was sleeping in a room underneath a bar.
The energy and sense of purpose Ben felt walking inside the UN was something he had never experienced before. He found himself unable to sleep or even think about anything else. After a few days, his suicidal thoughts disappeared for good. Ben had replaced them with something much more potent: a vision for his future that suddenly gave his life meaning.
PASSION TO THE RESCUE
Uncovering this passion was Ben’s big step out of depression, confusion, apathy, and self-doubt. He saw himself becoming a catalyst that would connect youth around the world with each other to solve local and global problems. Ben grabbed on to this crazy vision with two hands.
For three months after his impromptu tour of the UN, Ben researched the organization’s history, accomplishments, and missteps. He examined hundreds of UN resolutions regarding young people. Then he carefully submitted to the UN his own proposal to spearhead the creation of a United Nations Youth Assembly.
The UN’s reply was swift and direct: “Use our name again, and you will have to deal with our legal department.” However, the boilerplate rejection only solidified Ben’s resolve. He saw so much pain, anger, hate, and prejudice in the world. He knew youth had some of the answers. All that young people needed to put these answers into action was a way to come together and candidly express them.
Word of Ben’s proposal made the rounds on the Internet. A man in Arizona was intrigued that such a young guy would make such a bold proposal. He contacted Ben and offered him free room and board if he promised to relentlessly pursue his vision of connecting young people around the world. Ben moved from the confines of his concrete basement to the Arizona desert, where he had the space and encouragement to think big—and to take action.
In 2000, after spending two years working full time on his vision without receiving a single paycheck, Ben moved back to New York City to launch his international youth network. In New York, he worked around the clock networking, partnering, protesting, fund-raising, and advocating. Ben’s organization, the Global Youth Action Network (GYAN), was going from a picture in his mind to reality.
Ben’s dedication, passion, and selflessness—he paid himself only enough to rent a space in a different basement—won him intense loyalty from grassroots youth leaders around the world. These leaders showed their support by linking Ben’s organization to thousands of international youth organization, in only two years.
In 2002, Ben’s efforts reached critical mass. The GYAN helped Youth Service America lead Global Youth Service Day. This initiative mobilized more than one million young people in 150 countries over the course of one weekend. All these young people came together on the same weekend to better themselves, their communities, and the future of the world.
In Afghanistan, youth held roundtables to share their vision for the country. In Togo, youth participated in AIDS walks for awareness and education. In Russia, over seventeen hundred