2017-04-21
I finally found my item of significance from my bridge year: my one-legged jeans. I wore them practically every training seminar, a four-day series of sessions and dance parties with fellow fellows in my region in different parts of the country. Although I never wore them in my community, these half jeggings half booty shorts...
Read More2017-04-01
As a foreigner coming into a small community, its difficult, isolating, and lonely. My Spanish was weak, my Korean features drew curious yet detached stares, and my fashion choices marked me as an outsider. I remember thinking by the end of the first month, why am I here? I don’t belong. Especially going to the...
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2017-02-10
Live with a family. Have a local job. Go deeper than a traveler. Become part of a community and make a meaningful and informed contribution. Go from they to we. On Global Citizen Year’s website, immersion is defined in this way. I’ve heard the word a hundred times before and during this program thus far,...
Read More2016-11-08
I finally brought myself to watch E.T. after years of being too scared to face the wrinkly faced alien. Although the beginning still freaked me out, watching some Steven Spielberg was definitely a great idea. As I was sitting on a bean bag chair in my host family's living room with my youngest sister, I...
Read More2016-11-02
Ding! I get a notification to view my Facebook’s On This Day. In an Ecuadorian coffee shop, I open a post from exactly one year ago on October 31. I remember so very clearly the months of bitterness that ensued for the following months. The Chainsmokers, SNBRN, Big Gigantic, and Yacht Club were just some...
Read More2016-09-11
Peering up at the relentless slopes that stretched on for what seemed like eternity, I didn't think I could finish the hike. Yet I did, or at least our group of six made it all the way to the base of the last slope that led all the way up to the volcano. The view...
Read More2016-08-16
I’m still re-learning what it means to find my way around without a set of instructions. I think I’ve forgotten to enjoy life outside of the schedule written in the white boxes of my planner. At moment’s glance, it seems that I have everything in life figured out, but a closer look will expose that...
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