This unique triumph over my fear of failure happened on accident. I did not intend to hurt myself or to instill fear in my parents’ hearts. Life hands us lemons when we least expect them and when we would really prefer not to have them at all.
Category: first impressions
Stars in the Sky
I was dreaming about Unreasonable last night, about the long lost brothers and sisters I discovered 3 long years ago. I was reminded of our idealism, then. And maybe still.
commit
As I tentatively strolled into the open courtyard lined with stone pathways and young children holding up their quiet signs, I noticed a rectangular cynosure set in the middle of the grounds, topped with flowers and people touching their foreheads to the marble. A man asked me gently if I knew where I was going.
india
Which India is the real India? Which India is going to be my India. Which India will I let into my heart, sweep me off my feet, and dance all night with? Which India will choose me, take my hand, guide me through the crowded streets, and force me to get lost in her imperfect perfection?
alone
Loneliness is like waking up in the deep, encompassing darkness of a cave. It’s the first moment your eyes tell your mind what blackness is. It’s the millisecond of time you feel your pupils dilate, attempting to adjust to an unfamiliar endless hole of space. It’s the questions that invade your mind in hopes to grab hold of something tangible, comfortable, understandable. It’s the painful, confusing, frustrating noise of nothingness.
millee
www.millee.org
in transit
I asked her when I could come by the shelter and she smiled her big warm smile, slapped my knee, and exclaimed, “We want you now!” The next day I went to meet 15 of the sweetest young women. As Jaya walked me through the house, we discussed the girls’ stories while they joined us in the hallways, a façade of oblivion and bliss painted across their tortured faces. It is near impossible for me to comprehend how a girl, not yet woman, could have endured such pain and struggle, and still smile as brightly as they do. Jaya made me feel so at ease, I left my inhibitions to the wind and asked all my questions.
carpe diem
I come away from today with a spark lit inside me that screams at the top of its lungs, “This is our moment! Carpe Diem.” It is possible to spark change and to be that change if we can harness the skills that each of us have been endowed with and capitalize on those complex understandings of the world to solve the most difficult questions out there. Just how much are we willing to commit to this cause, the cause of the people in this world, to seize the passion within us and solve the puzzles that lie in absolute disarray?
nam
Rain. Rain rain rain. Somehow I’ve hop scotched my way around the world enough this year to avoid a majority of every city’s I-woke-up-on-the-wrong-side-of-the-bed-and-I’m-PMSing-and-I-cant-find-my-damn-keys day. But my luck hath runneth dry. I kicked off my winter vacation this year with the postponement of three days in Ho Chi Minh due to a business trip to…
24 Hours in Cambodia
Is it really possible that one company has accumulated such a vast number of well-rounded warm-hearted easygoing people?