I remember the first time I got on a plane to spend eight weeks in Spain on a study abroad program. I was 19, traveling alone, and had never navigated an airport by myself before, let alone an international airport in another country. I was so afraid, but under that fear was this wonderful level of excitement..... one that seemed to be whispering to me that I was going to have not just an amazing summer, but a life-changing one. And it was. Since 2001, I have completed two additional study abroad programs in Spain, another in Chile, and have spent a portion of a few summers in Peru and Costa Rica. What I experienced on that very first study abroad trip turned me into a global citizen. I saw that there was not just one way of living, one way of learning, one way of growing up, one way of dying. It made me hungry to know more of the world.... more of its perspectives, people, history and places. Here I am again, about to embark on a new travel experience to a place, a continent I've really never been before. In just a handful of days I'm off to Ghana. It is a culture I know almost nothing about, a language that I will understand but probably have some difficulties with due to variations in English, and a people that of course look very different from me! In the two weeks I'll be in Ghana, I will be spending almost a week in Sunyani, at the Notre Dame Secondary School for girls. A Catholic boarding high school, I will surely feel somewhat out of place as a white American in a building of over 500 African girls. While I most certainly have felt like an "outsider" before in various situations in my life, I think this will be a different kind of feeling. That being said, based on the fact that their school motto is "We Are One," just maybe I will feel right at home. After all, we ARE one.... one human family. One of my favorite phrases is the African phrase "Ubuntu"-- I am because we are. I think these next two weeks will change me once again. This kind of fear isn't so much the "I fear for my safety fear." It's the fear of the unknown. The fear of something you can't quite name, but in the gut, you know is a good thing. That's what I've learned about fear. It's not always something to be so afraid of :)
2 Comments
3/11/2014 11:52:40 pm
I appreciate your description of how adventure and fear can go hand-in-hand. Fear of the unknown.....I also consider this to be curiosity. My classes and I are excited to follow your blog while you're in Ghana!
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AuthorI am a teacher, traveler, and life-long learner. I connect students and teachers to globally -focused learning. I believe students crave to understand and interact with the world. I have a Michigan home, and a global heart. Archives
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