Fellow Stories
True gap year stories from Fellows abroad!
Check out the latest blogs from Global Citizen Year Fellows in Brazil, Ecuador, and India!
Category
Class Year
Country
Have A Little Faith
Ananda Day
2009-09-01
When the road gets dark And you can no longer see Have a little faith in me. -John Hiatt When you read the headlines in today’s newspapers and websites, anything but the feeling of faith is conjured up. Disgust, anger, sadness, shock, fear, even humor, resonate everywhere, but faith almost never appears. What about the non-stop...
Read MoreDown to earth
Gaya Morris
2009-08-25
So I’m not really sure why, but for some reason traveling always puts me in the mood for writing – airplanes, cars, trains. I’m on an airplane right now, about to take off. Maybe its the feeling of movement underfoot, or the wide open spaces that fill a lighted window. Here is a fun fact...
Read MoreLosing Coastlines
Ananda Day
2009-08-25
Who said sailing is fine? Leaving behind all the faces that I might replace if I tried on that long ride, looking deep inside but I don’t want to look so deep inside yet. -Okkervil For me, realization is the coast of the sea. As you leave the water to go back to the beach...
Read MoreGuns Aren’t for Killing?
Ian Zimmermann
2009-08-20
When I keep seeing these videos of guns rights activists outside of Obama health care rallies my stomach twists into knots. Sure, Second Amendment activists at these events haven’t yet been acting criminally, but I can’t help but feel that we take for granted our ability to have legitimate, nonviolent, political dialogue in this country...
Read MoreChimerican
Alec Yeh
2009-08-17
It jiggled with every vibration of the table. That thing on my plate was out to get me. No way was I going to eat something known as the slug of the sea. It had brown leathery skin, coated in the oil of the sauce. When the light caught it just right, it looked like...
Read MoreFather Knows Best
Laura Keaton
2009-08-13
Tonight the fellows had one of our bi-montly conference calls that we use to check in with one another and talk about the latest and greatest news. This evening we had the pleasure and privilege of having documentary film-maker and “citizen journalist” Tori Hogan on the line to tell us some of what she encountered in...
Read MoreDangerous Men Defy the Laws of Society
Mathew Davis
2009-08-11
A question that is asked often of me is how and why am I so different. People ask me this as though I am supposed to fit my entire life experience into a cute little nutshell. So that they can then compare me to their pre-conceived notions of how young black males are supposed to behave...
Read Moreand so it begins…
Marguerite LeLaurin
2009-08-11
As my senior year came to its finish, I was faced with a most intimidating situation. Like others of my age and my position, it came time for me to consider how I would move forward with my life, in which of endless options of direction. I was made to consider what meant most to...
Read MoreSpiraling Down
Ananda Day
2009-08-10
I’m waiting for my moment to come, I’m waiting for the movie to begin, I’m waiting for a revelation, I’m waiting for someone to count me in. -Keane Before Global Citizen Year I was waiting for something more… more than just the expected path. Graduate high school, go to college, graduate college, fall in love,...
Read MoreInside a bag of peanuts
Gaya Morris
2009-08-10
Earlier today I was sitting the car wondering what on earth I was going to write for my first blog post, what little piece of myself I should toss out there into cyber space, when I opened a packet of dry roasted peanuts. It was a shiny red package the size of a tea bag...
Read MoreSmile in Every Picture
Michael Wilson
2009-08-10
This expression “smile in every picture because that may be the only one people see” is one that came to mind a few weeks ago as I was sitting in the staff room of a YMCA residential camp, a small room with two computers with Windows 95, three dilapidated couches, and an old television that...
Read MoreThe Hardest Part… Yet
Laura Keaton
2009-08-07
When I applied to this program I knew I would be branching far out from what my other friends will be doing this coming year in college. Of course, I was excited to think of all the real world skills I would gain that could never be learned in a classroom. Learning a language by...
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