Hello everyone, my name is Lukas Brenard. I was raised in Stinson Beach, a small beach town in Northern California. At home it was paradise: surfing, sun, simplicity, and comfort. I knew everyone in town and they knew me. Yet at 15 I moved to Los Angeles to study music and see the world from a broader scope. Along with musical knowledge, the city helped me see the grand scale of humanity, industry, and, more importantly, how everyone dose not live with the same comforts as my friends and me.
When I returned to Northern California, everything seemed different. I felt a great gratitude for the oasis I left behind, matched be the painful disparity between my life and the lives of the masses. I asked myself, “If there is so much to see and learn in California, how much could there be in the world?” When the time came to go to college, I knew I wanted to see more of the world before I decided just what I was going to do in it.
I am shipping out to Senegal in the fall in hopes of helping the community as an apprentice and in doing so, finding myself. I have learned that by leaving the sphere of comfort, one strengthens and broadens their views while expelling their learned ignorance.
I hope my actions may act as a catalyst for global peace and cultural cooperation. Global Citizen Year has graciously granted me the opportunity to explore and be the change that I wish to see in the world.
