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
What the Bugs Gave Me
Emily Ford
2013-01-09
Bugs. Of shapes and sizes I didn’t couldn’t have imagined to be biologically possible. This is my first memory of my village. It was reaching dusk as I sat down on a mat in this unfamiliar place surrounded by strangers, when the hordes appeared. Cockroaches scurried from cracks in cement; beetles dug themselves out of the sand, and oddly...
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The Importance of Family
Kimberly Reed-Hyman
2013-01-09
As the tears start to fall from my eyes, I try my best to hide the fact that I’m crying, but I’m doing a terrible job because my host mom is asking me what’s wrong. It’s a few days from Christmas and I’m at my first Ecuadorian family celebration. The family is here to glorify...
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Olive Branch
Kim Asenbeck
2013-01-09
In Germany, next to my blonde-haired, blue-eyed cousins, I look like the child from the Jungle Book. Next to my Brazilian cousins, I look like a pale ghost. I’m too dark. I’m too light. In Germany, they tell me to take myself more seriously. In Brazil, they tell me to laugh a little. I don’t...
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Reader be Forewarned: This Story Contains Diarrhea
Barker Carlock
2013-01-09
For the past four days, my intestines have been ravaged. I have had the same liquid pouring out of both ends of my body. I’m not sure what the culprit was…perhaps the water, the greasy and sugary foods, the lack of exercise, etc. More than likely it was a combination of all of the above....
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Achote Excursion
Ella Wegman-Lawless
2013-01-09
It all started when my host mom came to my door and asked me if I would like to go to the Achote River. I of course wanted to get to know more and more of the land that surrounds my house so I said yes. When I walked outside to my delight and horror two horses were...
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Can I have one?
Jordan Lee
2013-01-09
In case you didn’t know, there is an education crisis in the United States. According to a study published by the education frim Pearson, students from the U.S. rank 17th internationally, while those from Finland, South Korea, and China grabbed the top spots. Experts say that if something is not done soon, the U.S. should...
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A Day in the Life
Emily Collins
2013-01-09
I wake up slow. Drifting between my dream and reality, I let my mind slowly awaken before my body. I turn off my alarm, gradually lifting my body and do a series of stretches before I even open my eyes. I give myself time each morning to reflect on the day that passed, and prepare...
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Lightness
Anvy Tran
2013-01-09
I am the whimsical child of uninhibited Chaos and graceful Mutability. Great Chaos, whose company I am the most comfortable in. I am understood by you. To be filled with madness as we are; this exhilaration that keeps the mind awake. For others you are terror, but when I see your constant dance of freedom, I only feel...
Read MoreHappiness and Indoor Plumbing
Allie Wallace
2013-01-09
A few weeks ago, as I was chopping onions with my adult host sister, she said something out of the blue that caught me by surprise. “At the end of the month, we’re going to finish the house.” “Wait, it’s not finished?” I asked, confused. Sure, the majority of the rooms are unpainted, the exterior...
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