Our nights would be, mostly, the same. Apart from one night.
That night I was half awake, in my boarding school bed, with fairy lights painting orange swirls under my eyelids, I could hear fingers tapping away at keyboards and friends chatting in the background. What was different about that particular night was the conversation; and how her voice rose above them.
“Why wouldn’t you do this [bridge year]? It’s a chance for an awakening, a chance to be curious and ask questions, a chance to find your place in the world!”
She was right.
I went through my emails, searched for, and opened the link that led me to the Global Citizen Year website.
I found myself enticed by the opportunities it presented – a year abroad for immersing oneself in a new community, through an apprenticeship and by living with a host family; thus providing the tools for young people to become future agents of change.
Global Citizen Year is deliberate and intentional in their choices; and so am I. I will not be entering a country as a volunteer simply taking a ‘gap year’, but as an apprentice learning during my ‘bridge year’. And that’s exactly why I decided to take a bridge year; to empathise with and understand the people I hope to, in the future, work alongside.
I see my Bridge Year as a fundamental year in my life, an ‘adrenaline shot’, a year to experience, a year to learn how to implement change, a year to seize opportunities , a year to see possibility become reality and year that will stay with me for life as a motivation to make change and see justice.
Quotes from the moment:
“If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together” – Lilla Watson
“Talent is universal, but opportunity is not” – Nicholas Kristof
So here’s to the year ahead!
