WE ARE HEADING TO THE FREAKIN' MIDDLE EAST AND EUROPE, THATS WHAT!
This trip could not come at a more perfect time. I'm out of school, my mom has the semester off from teaching, and we aren't getting any younger, right?
I've wanted to head to the middle east since I was in 4th grade and participating in the bible bowl at my catholic school where I was eliminated in the first round but I'm working hard to move on from that. I'm not catholic but none the less I was required to memorize the stations of the cross, the joyful and sorrowful mysteries, and looking back was encouraged to become invested in the historical aspects of the bible. We watched this movie called "Mary, mother of Jesus" and at the time I was just excited we didn't have class but I remember being shocked that the actors playing the characters of Jesus and his posse WERE NOT WHITE. I had this (dated) childrens bible from precious moments and Jesus was white with blue eyes, blonde hair, light skin, Mary was a fair skinned blonde and Joseph looked like the ken doll. My astonishment quickly turned to intrigue as my parents told me that in fact the movie was more accurate. Jesus was from the middle east//mediterranean area and looked more like our Lebanese family friends then he did us. I headed to public school two years later to start the 6th grade. It would be weird to not have religion class, but there was NO UNIFORMS, a bigger playground, and I got my own locker, who is going to argue with that?!
Less than a month into my first year of middle school, on September 11th, the world was changed. If you are reading this blog, I assume you watch the news and you have your own views about that day, but hopefully we can all agree it was devastating and things will never be the same. My interest in the middle east only grew after that. I've always been a rule follower, and when I break the social norm, its pretty passive. My rebellious acts include piercing my cartilage and dying some of my hair pink for breast cancer. I like rules and tend to become anxious in times when rules are broken. Friends will tell you that I'm outgoing, spontaneous but when evil strikes, I want to hide in a cave with a bullet proof vest and listen to Rod Stewart while wrapped in my snuggie. The aftermath of 9/11 was hard to grasp. Suddenly, there was people I was supposed "to fear." New images (although stereotyped) that my brain was asked to add to the "what bad guys look like" list. I was 12 years old and very much influenced by my environment. Luckily, my dad is one of the most open-minded people I have ever known and when the media profiled people from the middle east, or people in our community generalized entire countries as being evil terrorists, he stepped in and tried to provide the facts. My dad is almost 70 years old, he was a baby when the Holocaust happened, but a young man during the civil rights movement. He has seen FIRST HAND WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN PEOPLE ALLOW THEIR INSECURITIES AND FEAR TO CREATE BIGOTRY AND HATE. If he has instilled in me even a half of his ability to empathize, I hope my generation will be the generation that comes together. Everyone join hands and sing "We are the worldddddd, we are the childrennnnn". Am I funny yet?!
I don't have a college degree. But I have two eyes, two ears, a loud mouth, and ten fingers that type quickly. I know it is important for me to take this trip, I feel it in my gut.
I've always been a CNN kid, and what started out as a crush on Anderson Cooper developed into a genuine desire for the world around me. I'm from a small town and sometimes it felt stifling and it was refreshing to know that the world was a big place and I wouldn't be "stuck" in Burlington forever. Sometimes I hide in the fact that the world IS SO BIG and divert my eyes from all the tragedies that occur on a daily basis around the world. As much as I appreciate the media, it can be distorting. I think we focus on how different everyone is and I'd like to focus more on what we all have in common. Thats what this trip is about for me, or atleast what I hope it will be about. Learning that happiness isn't something you "arrive" at and is instead the journey is a lesson I am continuing to learn. I'm not sure whether it was all the episodes of saved by the bell, my southern upbringing, or shear naivete that lead me to the illusion that I would one day arrive at my destiny, and all the secrets of the world would become revealed. false. That would make life pretty boring and predictable and the only thing I can say with 100% confidence is that my life is anything BUT predictable.
