Fellow Stories

Brand New Day

Brianna Gilmore

2016-02-16

*This is a speech that I gave to my Amazon cohort on January 9th, 2016* New Year’s Eve is my favorite holiday. Most years, a friend and I spend all night together until the countdown for the New Year. On December 31st, 2014, I went to downtown Raleigh with my friend, Nathan. We watched the...

Mis Amigos (a poem)

Noah Hapke

2016-02-12

Back in Training Seminar 2 (TS2), in one of our many sessions, we focused on Storytelling but through a lense that we are not necessarily comfortable with. I spent an hour looking through old Renaissance paintings, observing specific color schemes and author's intentions, and recognizing patterns in size and theme. From there, we were given...

Poco a Poco

Miyo McGinn

2016-02-11

Hello, friends. I am still in Ecuador, still alive, still doing well. Still living with the family I wrote about in my most recent blog, four months ago. Many of the component pieces of what I described in that blog are still in my life, but not in the way I expected them to be when I wrote...

FEELS #3 – LESSONS

Austin Nguyen

2016-02-09

  Almost every day with Global Citizen Year is a lesson.Some days are Spanish classes, or I have informal Kichwa classes with my mother – those are lessons in a more traditional sense, I guess. Other days, the lessons are much more abstract. Sometimes I’m expanding on what I feel the meaning of being “happy”...

big mango fiber filled smiles

Rosalie Bull

2016-02-03

I spend my days with my hands in the dirt. Its a lovely job; taking root in the black grittiness of the Amazonian soil. Something about it fills me up, and that fullness bubbles up and out of me in big mango fiber filled smiles. It pours itself out to the tune of Graceland. It...

It Only Goes Up From Here

Munyaradzi Munyati

2016-02-03

December 2015 will very easily go down as one of the most testing months of my life thus far. I was forced to withdraw my placement at my dream university because of some unfortunate circumstances, had to reapply to new schools in 13 days, had two occasions where the law enforcement here assumed I was...

Open Letter To The One Who Feared Me

Munyaradzi Munyati

2016-02-03

Dear fearful citizen,   I do not blame you for being afraid of the unknown. I do not blame you for the fear and concern for your loved ones, For the desire to protect at all cost from what you deem to be a threat. If anything, I’m thankful you chose flight over fight because...

FEELS 2 – AUSTIN AND AUSTIN’S INFINITE PLAYLIST

Austin Nguyen

2016-02-01

Firstly, the title is a play on the name of that one movie with Michael Cera in it: Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist, I think. I’ve never seen it, but I’ve heard its good, so maybe I should. Secondly, I’ve realized lately that my coming here with Global Citizen Year has likely – no, definitely...

Unexpected Lessons

Gabriella Westcott

2016-01-30

Again, again, and again us fellows were warned of the evil that would come about if we had these certain things embedded in our minds. These things that could ultimately cause a harder time while in community by setting us up for possible success but most likely tearing us down by the shock of everything...

My Best Friend

Talia Bailes

2016-01-29

Why This Is My First Blog Post

Skyler Narotsky

2016-01-29

First off, I'd like to acknowledge that I am halfway through my time in Ecuador and this is my first blog. Sorry to all of you who have been patiently awaiting a blog post and haven't received one yet. Let me explain. I have been meaning to write one but all the time with the...

Bravery

Elena Doss

2016-01-29

“ Wow you are so brave for living in Ecuador!” The definition of Brave : Ready to face and endure danger or pain. I have not only heard this said to me once, but many times throughout this year. Supposedly, it is very brave to live in a second or third world country for a...