APPLY
  • Program
  • Admissions
  • Speakers
  • Alumni
  • About Us
APPLY
  • Why Join
  • Experience
  • Apprenticeships
  • South Africa
  • FAQs
  • Admissions
  • Tuition & Aid
  • Eligibility Quiz
  • Request Info
  • Alumni Stories
  • Community Hub
  • Fellowship
  • Academy
  • Our Story
  • Our Impact
  • Our Team
  • News & Press
  • For Educators
  • Donate

La Vida Nueva

The following is a journal entry on December 5th, 2011.

December 5th, 2011.

The sun is beating down, and as usual, it feels like it’s going to be a blistering hot, humid day. It should feel wrong, this abnormally long summer. But it doesn’t; it feels right; it feels like home. Looking back at the small black photo album I brought to show my host-family my real family, it seems a world away. I see a different era, a different me. I feel that as I look at pictures of myself in a blazer, tie, dress shirt; the whole private school ensemble, that I don’t recognize the face that is smiling back up at me. I miss the world I left, and everyone in it, but at the same time, life feels more real right here and now, than I could ever imagine the one at “home” being. Ecuador, the Caverns, are my home now. This is my family now. These are my friends now. This is my life. I’m living differently, but it feels more real than the phantasmal touch of snow on my face or hands, or the crunch of Autumn’s leaves under my feet. The sounds of night and the bright light of the moon have changed. As night arrives I expect thick, obscuring clouds; the land illuminated only slightly by the hidden stars and moon. The rushing of water from the caverns and the warm glow of the sun now greet me every day along with the scrabble of pebbles under my bare feet. Carpet and hot showers are a fading memory, now replaced by the cooling touch of concrete and refreshingly (sometimes anyhow) cold water accompanied by a blast of humid heat when the water is turned off. For now, this is my life, my reality.

Trevor Porter

About Trevor Porter


Trevor has a passion for poetry, conservation, and the culinary arts – especially baking. His love for animals took him last year to South Africa, where he worked with penguins and other sea birds with the South African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds. Trevor enjoys the creative process in its many forms, whether crafting a poem or concocting a dessert.

gcy logo
Take Action Lab
  • Why Join
  • Experience
  • Apprenticeships
  • South Africa
  • Take Action Lab FAQs
Academy
  • Why Join
  • Experience
  • Speakers
  • Academy Stories
  • Academy FAQs
Fellowship
  • Why Join
  • Experience
  • Destinations
  • Fellowship Stories
  • Fellowship FAQs
Admissions
  • Admissions
  • Tuition & Aid
  • Gap Year Resources
About Us
  • Our Story
  • Our Impact
  • Our Team
  • News & Press
  • For Educators
  • Community Hub
  • Instructor Hub
  • Careers

1625 Clay Street, Suite 400, Oakland, CA 94612
info@globalcitizenyear.org
415-963-9293

Have Admissions Questions?
Check out our FAQs or email our team at admissions@globalcitizenyear.org

Press Inquiries: Please contact Molly Weissman:
media@globalcitizenyear.org

Privacy Policy

© 2023 - Global Citizen Year