On so many mornings while in Ecuador I would awaken and, before opening my eyes, think that I was in my bedroom in Framingham. Each time I would drearily lift my eyelids to be reminded that I was in fact, still in my host community. Sometimes this excited me, others it was devastating, and sometimes…

11 May, 2019

[image: MVIMG_20190214_121234.jpg] For six months I have thought of the end as unreachable. It’s been a fleeting glimpse in my imagination; a speculative date that always lay months and months away. So many rice dinners, church services, Spanish classes, and workdays always stood between where I was and the end of my gap year. I…

06 March, 2019

For the past month, my little host sister Rafaela has been counting down the days until Christmas. Each day she comes into my room, asks me what the date is, and proceeds to tell me how many days until Papa Noel (Santa Claus) is going to come, and what she wants him, and me, to…

17 December, 2018

It is impossible to imagine how your life will change before it actually does. You throw yourself in, full of ideas and images of a world beyond your own, yet devoid of actual knowledge of what exists. Before the jump, changing everything seems purely adventurous — even glamorous. Yet, I have found that the landing…

26 September, 2018

As I stand on the edge of my childhood, I teeter from the breezes of the influential voices all around me. From behind, the voices of my teachers, my high school friends, my parents, and all of those who have helped me along the way.  Their messages are loud and clear and I know that…

09 August, 2018