When I was a junior in high school, we had to write a ten page paper on a topic of our choice. I chose global citizenship and defined a global citizen as that person who travels the world, speaks many languages, and has visited dozens of countries. I therefore included myself in the category, as I knew three languages and have visited and lived in more than one country. Later, When I joined Global Citizen Year, as I reflected on my path to high school, I thought of how lucky I was to have received a scholarship to go to…

(This post was originally a speech I made for my “Speak-up” presentation addressed to the entire Ecuador cohort during Training Seminar 2 in Esmeraldas. I left most of the speech as is for some soundness.)
This post has to do with the most profound thing I have ever heard that came up in a class during the last semester of my senior year. It is just one single fact that I felt really changed my philosophy on life. It did not come up from some English book, a history lesson, or even philosophy lecture, but from my Physics class. It’s something pretty technical that I took very emotionally…

I feel the stories I share should be filled with pithy anecdotes and cultural insights. Yet all I have to offer is normalcy. Life does not change from one hemisphere to the other. Relationships, societies, human beings – they mesh and flow in similar collisions, no matter the place. My life here in Ecuador feels…normal. That surprises me.
The day before I left Quito for my community of Santa Fe de Galan, I was a mess of panicky nerves. I did not know the nature of my apprenticeship nor did I have the confidence to live with “not knowing.” Although wary of having expectations about Ecuador, I had not…

Let’s say the world is a village of 100. What do we see? There are differences in ethnicity—57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 Americans (North and South), 8 Africans—gender—52 females, 48 males—religion—30 Christians, 70 non-Christians—language—66 multilingual speakers (not one of whom is American)—sexuality—89 heterosexuals, 11 homosexuals—income—6 have 59% of the world’s wealth (all from the U.S.), 80 live in substandard housing, 50 are malnourished—and education—70 are illiterate, only 1 has a college degree, and only 1, which would be me and you right now, has a computer. With such privilege, it is my responsibility to pay forward my blessings. I receive my apprenticeship later this week, and I hope to make real human…

 Its been a true experience, starting from being locked out of the house hours before my flight leaving Atlanta for San Francisco. Then, missing my first flight, and now flying standby. As I approached security I tried to keep together at least until I was out of the sight of my mother and little sister who were now completely in tears, but it didn’t work, I began to cry, actually I kind of fell apart like a 2 year old for several different reasons. Of course because I would be leaving my family that I had always been with and my sister who I have never been away from…

I landed in Quito after a full day of travel today. I did not even attempt to go to sleep last night, since the bus was leaving at 3:15 and I had to pack and weigh my bags. Fall training at Stanford was amazing and I had a spectacular time getting to know the other 90 Global Citizen Year Fellows there. On the first day, the 19th, I was the first to check in, so after i dropped off my bags in my room I got a feel for the place I would be training in for 9 days. I…

In the days leading up to my departure from home, I kept catching myself adding to a mental list of “lasts.”  As I walked my dog around the block I would think about how this is the last time I will be doing that exact activity for the next eight months. My last time eating homemade granola, buying gas at Sam’s Club, and babysitting my neighbors.  Or eating at Taco Diablo and Noodles and Company, and buying a scoop of chocolate chip ice cream from Hartigan’s.  Seeing familiar faces as I ride my bike wouldn’t happen for a while, nor would drinking from the tap, or shopping…