Tim’s Story: The Melody of Life

Nothing pleases me more than to see people smile. The chance to meet new and interesting people, to visit downtown Chicago, was what first drew me to Imagine Chicago. I was a member of the DuSable Youth Leadership Council, and we were participating in the citywide interview project.

My most interesting interview took place with Tom Cookins, a Chicago city planner. He was what I envisioned the typical downtown executive to be, with his dark business suit and stern face. In the interview, I asked him to close his eyes and paint me a picture of Chicago. This question revealed a vibrant side of him. He said, with robust passion, "Tim! You know where you are by the smell! Pizza and pretzels on Michigan Avenue, Garrett’s Popcorn on State Street, hotdogs at Wrigley Field — a food lover’s paradise!" During our interview, I think Tom found a way out of the finite, stressful and monotonous world of budgets, deadlines, objectives and agendas, and rediscovered the infinite possibilities we all had as children. My most shocking interview was with Gertrude Nielsen. Her simple act of generosity helped pay my way through college. To this day, I have no idea what I said to give her any reason to care about me once I left the room. However, I did learn one of life’s most critical lessons at this time: "Always be at your best because you never know who’s watching."

Halfway through my freshman year of college, a chaotic chain of events set my life in a tailspin. My grades were not what I deemed acceptable. The tragic loss of beloved friends and family was compounded by the burden of trying to adapt as an African-American to a racially homogeneous college campus. I found myself in a rut of deficit thinking, focusing on what was going wrong instead of what was right in my life, and how I could make it better. After some tremendous soul searching, I realized I had gotten away from the appreciative frame of mind. I started asking everyone from the maintenance staff to the college president what made them feel good. Infused with positive energy, I was asked to sit on many college committees and was awarded the coveted President’s Award in Human Relations. After graduation, I was offered the chance to direct a new effort, Imagine Detroit.

Running my own Imagine project was very difficult for various reasons, mainly because I was in a city where I knew absolutely no one! I felt like a politician before election day, meeting with schools, community groups, clubs, other non-profits and even the Detroit police department, to solicit support. I gave up many nights and weekends to make sure the program was a success. There were some fantastic outcomes. I witnessed another promising young black man so impress his interviewee, that he too was offered a scholarship for college. A middle school student, who interviewed the director of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, was offered a chance to bring students from his school to the Symphony for a private concert and time to play music with some of the world’s greatest instrumentalists.

I feel I have gone full cycle in the Imagine circle of life. I was a teen participant, who then grew into a volunteer and later into a seasoned veteran, to help Imagine Chicago on clutch projects and conferences. I have been the director of Imagine Detroit. And recently, I was entrusted with starting an Imagine project in Kragujevac, Serbia, with Katrina Pavlik, a former staff member of Imagine Chicago. Within three weeks, the youth participants created an Appreciative Inquiry protocol, administered over 150 interviews and started brainstorming a service project to maximize the input received from the interviews. Katrina and I worked to develop a core group of youth, who will continue the Imagine lineage. If all of the youth in Serbia are as dedicated as these, it will soon be an exciting place to visit.

In the realm of non-profit work, Appreciative Inquiry helps me keep a tight grip on reality, because it reminds me of what I am fighting for. We live in a world of extreme and contagious cynicism. We tear people down, without realizing the full effect of our attitudes. By using Appreciative Inquiry, we can express ourselves without the fear of cynical annihilation; we can reestablish community ties and bonds. To identify the core of what is positive in our lives, and in the lives of others, gives us a unique perspective on how the world works and some insight into how we can make it better. At a young age, we can become builders of the human spirit.