Fellow Stories
True gap year stories from Fellows abroad!
Check out the latest blogs from Global Citizen Year Fellows in Brazil, Ecuador, and India!
Category
Class Year
Country
Beautiful Reality
Emily Collins
2013-04-14
Song As my time here is beginning to come to an end, and realizations of college being my new upcoming reality, I can’t help but think what it is this experience has done for me. I know I’ve changed in many ways; various means that I will never even realize have altered. I’ve been gone...
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Colors Around the Mountain
Becky McClements
2013-04-14
As the sun goes down, the colors around the mountain emerge. The roas gleams burnt orange against the array of greens that blossom up the hillside. Yes, the houses blend in with the brown of the brush but the flowers bloom brilliant reds and oranges. Mangoes droop from tree branches, fading from a pale yellow...
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Her Shoes
Talia Katz
2013-04-14
Someone once told me that a person’s story could be told by the soles of her shoes. She said that the shoes’ movements, trails, rhythms, and placements could converge to reflect a unique tale. Although the narrative of my past eight months often feels as multifaceted as the collection of sand and dirt particles perpetually...
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The Value of Time
Hannah Bouline
2013-04-14
Time is a very plastic thing – it is swollen and rich at times, and flaccid and bland at others. As my days in Ecuador become fewer and fewer, I have been thinking about time quite a bit, unfurling it like a fern. I look back through my journey this year, and time seems to...
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Personal Statement
Drew Hayes
2013-04-10
High school for me was mostly a matter of reaction. Test announced, I prepared. Something assigned, I did it. Bell rang, next class. Extracurricular, I showed up. Swim practice, I obeyed the coach. Social event, I socialized. In hindsight, I succeeded mainly because of that system of expectations. I let myself be dragged. I’m no longer in high...
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How I Learned to Appreciate I-40
Israel Nelson
2013-04-10
“First in roads; Last in education” is a tongue in cheek saying I heard a lot growing up in North Carolina. While the saying refers more to the disparity in taxes doled out by the North Carolina State Government, as a result, many North Carolinians (myself included) grew up thinking that spending money on roads...
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Soon
Alan De Leon
2013-04-08
By the time you read this blog post, I will have already left my home community in Bahia, Brazil. I spent many months of my life there. To be truthful, I am finding it difficult to convince myself that I even did that: I left my city, my state, my country, and left the North...
Read MoreLearning to Speak
Daniel Schwarz
2013-04-07
The lights are off. I am sitting. I am thinking. I am counting. “Tuesday 1, Wednesday 2, Thursday 3, Friday 4, Saturday 5, Sunday 6, Monday 7 Tuesday 8, Wednesday 9, Thursday, 10, Friday, 11, Saturday…12, Sunday…13, Monday 14, Tue….” I stopped. “15 days” I thought. I paused, I breathed. I began to reflect. I’ve been here for 7 months....
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From One End of the Spectrum to the Other
Carrie Hamilton
2013-04-07
It is truly amazing how quickly things can change, how suddenly experiences can be over, how unexpectedly new beginnings can appear. This has been so heavily on my mind over the past couple of weeks as my time in Ecuador has taken an unforeseen turn. Two weeks ago, I moved out of my community of...
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On Guayusa
Carrie Hamilton
2013-04-07
Guayusa is a native plant to Ecuador that the Kichwas drink as a traditional tea. My past six months have been positively filled with guayusa, both through my homestay and through my work, and, given my proximity to and close work with the stuff, I cannot believe it’s taken me this long to write about...
Read MoreBreaking through the language Barrier
Kimberly Reed-Hyman
2013-04-07
Working around a lot of little kids you only understand half of the time is a difficult thing to do. When I first started working at the day care and the older women would try to talk to me, I never understood them. Having that happen did get frustrating at times but it didn’t compare to the feelingI felt...
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It’s All About the People
Carrie Hamilton
2013-04-07
Seven months ago when I left behind my comfortable life in Chapel Hill for the first time, I left behind a community of friends and family that I had known for practically my whole life. I was on the brink of an experience that would alter me in ways that I previously could never have...
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