My very own, highly personalized, (highly public), blog. Well, I do have to say this was much more of a challenge than I originally anticipated. Over the course of, well, frankly far too long, much of my time spent on creating this first post went a whole lot like this:
Step one:
Sit down and think of a creative, alluring title.
Step two:
Spend far too long on step one, and throw down something that will simply not suffice, but place it there anyway.
Step three:
Move along.
Step four:
Stare at the smudged computer screen and have an anxiety attack over the issue at hand: how you simply do not know how to present yourself in a way that is catching, respectable, witty and down right enjoyable to read.
So, this was my life for, as I mentioned earlier, far too long. And as I moved about my household, hoping that it was maybe the position I was sitting in, or the feng shui of the room, I finally came to my senses (or completely lost them, open to
interpretation). I just needed to write. And hope for the best! So, here I go.
My name is Maria Lucia Gamache. I come from a family of two loving parents, two older brothers, two ridiculous pet goats, and one lazy dog. My home is located in the beautiful Green Mountain State, otherwise known as Vermont and I have survived off of nothing but maple syrup and locally grown foods all my life… Nah, just kidding. But I do live in Vermont and that is the gist of my nuclear family.
In the spring of 2012, I was accepted into the Young Innovative Entrepreneurship Program (YIEP), now called Project Harmony International, and traveled to Turkey as a student ambassador promoting entrepreneurship. While there, my world was turned upside down when I met Elizabeth Metraux. Elizabeth was the group leader, with an official title of YIEP Project Coordinator. She attended the trip to Turkey with the seven-person cohort consisting of five high school students, one business teacher, and herself. Though Elizabeth deserves a whole novel dedicated to all 28 years of her life (trust me, she’s that interesting), all I can say is that she opened up my eyes to more than just the traditional way of living. I was going to be applying to colleges soon after, but Elizabeth was the first person to really say, “Hey, there’s more than one way to do this.”
After meeting Elizabeth and traveling to Turkey, I decided that traveling was something I was very interested in. Now, I know that almost everyone enjoys traveling. Why not? Beautiful sights…hopefully friendly people, and new foods. But I wanted more than just sight seeing and visiting tourist attractions. I wanted to really be immersed within a culture and be a member of that community. I wanted to know the language, know the people, help where I might be needed and learn. In addition, I wasn’t entirely sold on any one-career path, or any specific subject, for that matter.
So, I took all of these wants and started looking for a gap year program that would help in fulfilling them. After a few duds I finally came across Global Citizen Year. And the rest…is yet to come.
~ Maria Gamache
