'Tis the Season

There I was filling seats at the Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Yes, my friends, Vivacious Vicki was a seatfiller at an awards show! While this was a goal I've been seeking to reach for a while --seeing the ins and outs of an awards show -- what I did not know was the value added by watching heroes first-hand.

The event was CNN Heroes Awards so although walking backstage pass the green room and the press room was quite exciting for moi, you know what? Despite the celeb spottings and wonderful musical performances by Grammy award winning artists, there is something to be said about seeing people who are moving mountains.

Ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

Giving back. Like the eight year old leukemia patient who is on a mission to increase bone marrow donors throughout the country. Or the teen from Canada who created a way to connect with autistic children through music. Or the man in New York City who literally climbed down on the subway tracks to save a man's life who had a seizure at the time. Or the man who went to Africa to make computers accessible to children to hopefully give them education to eventually get out of poverty.

As much as we're driven by careers and climbing that corporate ladder, you know what? The awards show hit home for me. I enjoy recruiting because it helps me connect people with jobs but at the end of the day (or in this case, awards show), it made me want to do something bigger. Larger than life. Or at least a small step in the right direction. So with the holidays upon us and we're in the hustle and bustle of our daily routines and jobs (not to mention errands), I ask you this: how can we contribute to the bigger picture?