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
A Beautiful Welcome
Emery Harwell
2015-08-31
As the plane touched down in Quito, a flood of emotions swept over me. Excitement. Apprehension. Sadness. Anxiety. Curiosity. Excitement again… I was missing friends at home, but I couldn’t wait to experience this new place with my new friends from Global Citizen Year. Of course this was all complimented by the inability to pop...
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This is life.
Rosalie Bull
2015-08-30
“It’s going to be hard.” I’ve heard that so many times leading up to this moment, usually from my own smiling mouth. “Oh yeah, it’ll be hard but definitely worth it.” I have a new appreciation for those words after this week. This week, I got my first taste of hardship;...
Read MoreA New Journey
Mandula Bashu van den Berg
2015-08-29
PROLOGUE Strangers cry in California and I am there, dressed in vibrant red. Knots tie my stomach to my skin, the patio shuffles my bare feet apart. They, we, us, them, she, him, I are leaving. Really now. FIRST CHAPTER In the corner of our stuffy common room, a boy softly plays the piano. People...
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Que Chevere!
Hillarie Madden
2015-08-27
Sitting on my connecting flight from Dallas to San Francisco, I frantically glued my eyes to my Spanish survival guide. Trying to sound out the words quietly without looking too weird I asked myself “ what the hell did you get yourself into this time Hillarie? You got yourself in deep, I moving to Ecuador...
Read More“WELCOME TO THE WORLD”
Jackson Harris
2015-08-27
Written from 24-27 August 2015 On Curiosity before Judgement Looking back at my summer, I remember numerous conversations that seemed to follow the exact same script: JACKSON walking down the street, enter FRIEND/FAMILY/FAMILY FRIEND/ETC. FRIEND: “So, when do you leave for school?” JACKSON: “Actually, I’m taking a bridge year before college.” FRIEND: With concern. “A...
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Straying Off the Common Path
ericagonzales08
2015-08-27
When I meet new people and when they learn that I am a recent high school graduate, they always ask me, “Where are you going to college?” My answer is always, “Oh, I don’t know yet. But I am taking a bridge year in Brazil.” And their response is usually either “Oh, that’s so cool!”...
Read MoreCLAY
Indiana Nunez Sharer
2015-08-27
I come from a land where beneath the surface of the ground there is rich, terracotta colored clay. It is clay that when walked upon adheres to the bottom of your soles and if those soles just happen to be bare, well, you will find your feet to be tinted red. In this same land from which I come...
Read MoreThings In My Room
Mila Le
2015-08-27
Things in my room, I have clothes, books, an excessive amount of pillows, I have peace. I’m deciding what I should pack. I’m deciding on what I need. In my ginormous suitcase I’ve packed a lot of t-shirts, a couple pairs of pants, 2 pairs of shoes, some formal dresses and a lot more toiletries...
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Ready together
Brooke Donner
2015-08-27
Last night we danced. Senegalese pop music bounced off the trunks of centuries-old redwood trees as we encircled a campfire and attempted to follow the lead of our dance instructor Christian, a fellow Senegal Fellow from Germany (I’m still not sure why he knew the routine, but he sure knew it). Our feet moved quickly...
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