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
Let’s Begin
Elliott Aronson
2014-08-07
Insecurity derives from a lack of capability. And as people of the world have proven time and time again, a “lack of capability” derives from nonsense. The most wonderful part about being human is that improvement is always attainable. By constantly improving yourself, you are ultimately making your life easier by becoming more accessible to...
Read MoreAutumn and Spring.
Elias Smolcic-Larson
2014-08-06
As I sit here, with my mouth still hurting after having my four wisdom teeth removed I now know it is time. At the beginning of summer, I thought for sure this summer would last. In early June when I was making my appointments in preparation to depart for Ecuador the entire summer loomed ahead,...
Read MoreMy own trail
Charlotte Reider-Smith
2014-08-04
I’ve always liked to diverge. Rebecca, Abby, and Sam ski on ahead. I plop down in the snow, waiting for them to disappear. I want space to get lost in the snow and the trees. I want to find my own way down the mountain, far from their tracks and voices. I lay back, looking...
Read More(Not) The End
Kaitlyn Johnke
2014-08-03
I started crying on the morning two days before I left Gale Neenang Dialamba et Babang Sori, the place I have called home for the last eight months and always will. “Wataa wulu, wataa wulu. A wuli. Yewni.” (Don’t cry, don’t cry. Alright, you’ve cried, enough.) My family, outside the kitchen, was telling me, waiting...
Read MoreView From The Top
Jason Child
2014-08-03
I would like to first thank everyone who has helped me during my summer campaign. You guys are great! Each and every one of you has shaped me to become the person I am today. I will miss all of you tremendously. Last week I hiked Lone Peak. It is my favorite peak to stand...
Read MoreHomes Away From Home
Aliana Ruxin
2014-08-03
I’m writing this from my bed at sleep-away camp, putting pen to paper, this time as a counselor, much as I did years ago as a camper on Letter Writing Days. Looking around at my campers, reflecting on the past six weeks we’ve spent here, remembering the previous seven summers I’ve been at camp, I...
Read MoreA Little Bridge Before the Big One
Jane Tobias
2014-08-01
I know it’s coming. I’ve been dreaming about the day I leave for a long time. But someday is different than a date on the calendar. When I’m bundled in bed waiting to fall asleep, walking down the street, or washing dishes in the kitchen sink, snapshots of banana groves, cobble stone streets, and markets...
Read MoreOn Maya Angelou, loneliness, and being the boss
Cierra Bland
2014-08-01
I sat in my cap and gown for the first time- full honor chords, stoles and all- as my friend leaned in from behind to tell me that Maya Angelou had died. Right there in the middle of my Senior Awards Ceremony, stunned by the emotion of the news I had just received, I could...
Read MoreUntil we meet again..
Elizabeth O'Malley
2014-08-01
As I form a list of what to pack for this grand adventure, I think of which shoes I’d like to wear in this new place, or if I’ll need a particular outfit. How do I choose between favorite sweatshirts? Of course, my answer is to bring the lightest ones. But, this sense of reality...
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