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
Ready As I’ll Ever Be
Cassidy Nelson
2014-08-01
“Are you ready?” seems to be the unavoidable question these days. Implying of course, am I ready to: move to a completely foreign developing country, join a new family, leave behind everything I’ve ever known, and acquire a new language from scratch. So the simple answer is, “absolutely not.” As of now, I have never...
Read More Distances and Connections
Irie Ewers
2014-07-31
“I’ve been absolutely terrified every moment of my life –and I’ve never let it keep me from doing a single thing I wanted to do.” –Georgia O’Keeffe The funny thing about physical distances is that you would assume they make emotional distances greater. Now that summer is winding down, most solitary moments really have...
Read More Rivers and Roads
Briana Merrigan
2014-07-31
“A year from now, we’ll all be gone, all our friends will move away,” As I sang these words at my graduation party surrounded by lifelong friends, I felt something coming to an end. Not the end of friendships, but the end of this stage in life. We are all inevitably pushed and pulled in...
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Changing The World
Bennett Quintard
2014-07-31
Over the next eight months I will do many things. I will eat new foods, create new relationships, become more self sufficient, see amazing sights, laugh, cry, and grow. But there is one thing that I most definitely will not do. I will not change the world. I know this is more then a little confusing for...
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Canvases Painted with Tears
Paulina Jedrzejowski
2014-07-31
In three weeks I will be leaving for an adventure of a lifetime – Brazil. I have always dreamed about going to Brazil but I never thought I would be going there for eight months with a leadership development organization… Today I was reading through quotes as I do when I am bored or when...
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Anticipation
Ava Rofougaran
2014-07-31
I feed off new cultures. I have always been enraptured by the ways people live in other parts of the world. It may seem odd, but when I was little, I begged my parents to send me abroad for the summer. During my travels, I had no homesickness, no separation anxiety, no fear of unfamiliarity—just...
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Mangi Fi Rekk
Rachel Schrattenholzer
2014-07-30
In Wolof, “How are you?” is said “Nanga def?” which literally means “Where are you?”. The usual response to this is “Mangi fi rekk.” which means, “I am here.” By saying “I am here,” you are saying that you are alive, and that is something to be grateful for. “I am here” and that in...
Read More Living My Dream
Hannah Phalen
2014-07-30
“The biggest adventure you can ever take is to live the life of your dreams.” – Oprah Winfrey It has always been a top priority of mine to see the world. I grew up being taught that you need to make sacrifices, but anything you want to do is somehow possible. I didn’t grow up...
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Prologue
Myriam Sitterson
2014-07-30
I believe that one of the greatest skills an artist possesses is his or her ability to make a flat surface look three-dimensional. It’s incredible, really. Right now, my knowledge of the world is largely two-dimensional. A lot of the time, I feel ignorant, shut-off, naive. Like I’ve grown up inside a box. A box...
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Planet Waves
Kamilah Udomsap
2014-07-30
While the looming shadow of an empty piggy bank haunts my dreams, it is accompanied by thoughts of a new world, a divergent culture, and a breath of air that I’m unaccustomed to. Upon being accepted into the blessing that is Global Citizen Year, I’ve already gotten a new lease on life, but it’s come...
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Five Thousand Mile Bridge
Nicholas Chieng
2014-07-30
Hello! My name is Nick Chieng; I am 18 years old and a graduate of Franklin High School’s class of 2014. “Half of the time I couldn’t understand what he was saying because he spoke with a thick accent, but immersed in the moment of it all, that didn’t even matter. There I was walking the...
Read More Leaving my Reverie
Samantha Srok
2014-07-30
For the past 26 days that I have been out of school, 21 have been spent working at Camp Alice Chester as K/PA (Kitchen/Program Assistant). I’ve been going to camp since I was seven and especially since I started my volunteer year there, 2 years ago, it’s been a key part of my life. It’s...
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