My dreams are coming true!

Hello everyone!  My name is Eddie Katz.  I am 17 years old, I just graduated high school, and Global Citizen Year is making my dreams come true :).  I really decided to take a gap year and try to travel because I thought I needed to really find myself in a way I couldn’t do any other way.  I come from Ithaca, New York, where I live as myself (obviously), but that’s not all me.  Whoever I am now as I live and grow in the place where I grew up, is a person who has been conditioned to live in this place.  Who I am is a direct result of my surroundings, so I’m not sure how much of me came from me and how much is because of Ithaca.  I need to figure that out before I can move on with my life. I’m not sure if Brazil is the right place to do it, but that almost makes it better. If it weren’t for Global Citizen Year though, I don’t think any sort of travel like this would have been possible, and for that I consider myself extremely lucky.

I cannot think of a better environment in which to find myself than forcing myself to be a stranger in a foreign country.  That’s really the main reason I reached out to Global Citizen Year: to find myself.  I didn’t have a place in mind, just one that was completely different from mine now.  People need a chance to leave everything but themselves behind and go out into the world just to live and explore the wonders of life.

Brazil really caught my eye as dream place to spend a year firstly because of soccer.  It’s well known how important soccer is in Brazil and as a soccer player myself, a place where soccer is loved by the nation as much as its loved by me is absolutely incredible.  Brazil may be the soccer capital of the world and a place I dream of going.  So for my future to hold a year set aside for me to live in Brazil, to learn its language and its culture, is a dream come true.  I feel truly lucky to get such a fantastic opportunity.

My goal is to become comfortable in a new culture and learn the ways of others to help make me a better world citizen and leader.  I want to go to college knowing who I want to be and what I want out of life so that I can truly appreciate college for what it is: the preparation for the rest of my life.  I believe that this experience will allow me to go into college ready with everything I need for my future.  I look forward to sharing my experience with all of you! Please subscribe to my blog if you wish to learn about and follow my adventure day by day with me! 🙂

Thanks for reading.

–Eddie Katz