Travel can be a major pain, heavy bags, long lines, lost luggage, delayed flights, trains, planes, buses and cars. For frequent travelers it seems counterintuitive to continually plan trips – often many hours or days long – knowing it’s going to be uncomfortable, annoying, challenging and tiring….why willing go through that? For many of you reading this the answer is probably obvious…the bottom line is we want to get to where we are going. Whether we’re going to see family, friends, on vacation or just heading home, however difficult the journey, it’s the destination that drives us.

This past week I had the privilege of attending the first Leadership Academy retreat for the class of 2008 – 2009. Out time together was jam-packed with intense discussions and workshops about personal sustainability, moving and motivating people to take action on behalf of social justice, anti- oppression and identifying our individual purpose and vision. Throughout the course of the five day retreat many of the discussions challenged notions about what we believe about ourselves and those around us. Whether grappling with an ideological identity, mapping out steps to combat different forms of privilege and oppression, articulating visions for the world or making commitments to personal sustainability there are tough realizations to be had and decisions to be made. Retreat facilitators, Jidan Koon and Sujin Lee remarked to the group that difficult as it may be to feel challenged and often time uncomfortable we must keep in mind what we are trying to do and where we are trying to go. If young progressive leaders are going to create change through their work a strong sense of purpose, self and understanding of the social climates we’re surrounded by is key.

To envision a world where equality is a certainty and there is an assurance of justice for all is to also be cognizant of a rocky road ahead. Although there is a lot of work to be done until our vision becomes a reality there is a great comfort in knowing that the Leadership Academy class of 2008 – 2009 is a strong group of young professionals who are already incredible leaders in the movement and in their communities. And while the movement faces struggles each of them now stand at the front lines of leadership development and are committed to traveling and forging ever closer to our shared vision for the world. Over the next 10 months these 21 Fellows will work together to build alliances, increase their personal and professional effectiveness in the movement and gain the skills needed to create real, lasting and positive change. They will learn from workshops, readings and most importantly, they will learn from each other. This community of change motivated young professionals is already affecting change every day and is sure to continue to grow stronger and build an unstoppable progressive movement.