Macy's Passport 2009

Macy's Passport is a fashion show, hosted by Macy's (obviously), and has taken up most of my time for the past two weeks when not studying the pharmacy technician books.

For the past 27 years Macy's Passport has featured unparalleled fashion and state of the art theatrics in its live events in San Francisco and Log Angeles, while raising funds to support local HIV/AIDS organizations.  To date, the event has raised $28 million for HIV/AIDS charities and research projects.

--macys.com/passport

I met the coordinator of the event through another project that the two of us were helping to coordinate, and she asked if I wanted to help out with this event.  Prior to that, I had already volunteered for the event for three separate years (doing typical volunteer support stuff for events like these, such as coat check, serving food, etc.) and so of course I said yes.  At the time, I didn't realize she was the coordinator, and so I was pleasantly surprised when I learned I'd be getting some pay, be working in the back as one of the people that helps to cue the models/entertainment, and would not only be helping out in San Francisco, but be flown out to LA with hotel and food also covered.

It was most definitely a great experience when I did it for the first time last year (and got to watch the Jabbawokeez perform live, among other people), that I was ready to accept again this year when it was brought up.

This year, I got to see some old faces, and meet some new ones.  It's always interesting watching Sharon Stone do her thing in getting people to donate money to the causes the event supports.  She does a great job.  I also I took a picture with the Harajuku Girls, and missed it as Eddie Murphy walked right by me.

How does this relate to pharmacy?

Well, I didn't really mean for it to be related.  Even though pharmacy is my primary goal, there still are other things in my life that I have interest in.  I'm not doing it to get into pharmacy school.  But it is a small reflection of all the community service I've done over the years (an area that I'm sure will be very strong on my applications) and it is related in that it has to deal with fundraising for HIV/AIDS and there are plenty of medications that deal with that issue.  I got my first real life look at that (as talked about in my previous post [Edit: Which has now been removed due to my own privacy concerns]) because of this show.

In general, I enjoy participating in this event because it is so far removed from what my life is normally like and focused towards, as well as it supporting a good cause.  It's a short two week experience out of the year, and a short break is a good thing as long as I remain focused afterwards.  The admissions officers are always talking about how they're looking for well-rounded people, and I'd say this can help me in that category.  (Although this corner of my application is probably rounded enough.)

My goal is pharmacy, but it's important to still have some balance to my life.