Where I'm at and Where I am Going...

Many of us have been on this journey for a year already. We are halfway up the mountain, all of us are gripping tight. A little too tightly. Our fingers wedged firmly in the friendships, volunteering, readings, fundraising and now blogging. But we need to loosen our grips and take a breath as we wait to find out our summer destinations and placements.

And then, Joanne, the Beyond Borders Director at St. Jerome’s University gives us a little tidbit about where we are going. She has placed the fourteen of us all over the world sending four students to Kenya, three to Uganda, three to the Dominican Republic and two to Ukraine and India respectively.

The fourteen students in the Beyond Borders program are like little children waiting for Santa Claus as soon as anyone mentions our summer placements. It is both exciting and exhilarating but also creates angst and nervousness within us. In many cases, people are always looking towards the end…
the end of the movie
the end of their workday
the end of their school term
the end of their night…

The Beyond Borders students including myself are waiting for the end of this term to embark on a journey that we hope and have been told will change us forever. We will be working with feral children in the Dominican Republic, working with people with disabilities in Ukraine and Uganda, developing soccer leagues for children in Uganda or micro financing in Kenya along with a collection of other placements in the countries mentioned above. For me, each end is a new beginning to something bigger and better. The end of my undergraduate education means beginning to engage in a global society to really learn and put our focus towards larger issues like universal education and maternal health.

Thinking about my placement drives me crazy in the best way possible. The Beyond Borders program has allowed me to gain a greater perspective on the reality or our perception of reality in Canada. I always knew that I have it easy compared to other parts of the world but this program with all of its facets has exploited my vices and habits 10 fold and I feel that my placement this summer will exploit those vices 100, 1000 or even 1 million times more then they already are.

When we think of devastation, we think about our hand sanitizer exploding in our backpacks, purses or pockets. Our worst day is a traffic jam or not meeting a deadline. For some Beyond Borders students, our worst day will be finishing a blog. But lets think about this: we have hand sanitizer to stay clean and prevent the spread of germs, we have roads and cars and we have jobs that provide us money to provide us shelter, clothing and food. I am getting a world-class education and I probably don’t go to think about it when I am at home at 3:00am finishing an essay that I can print off of my computer. Real devastation is discovering your pregnant, being diagnosed with AIDS and loosing your mud hut to a flood only to have unclean water and not enough food to nourish your children.

Our summer placements will be fascinating and hopefully open the door to the world of possibilities. Joanne called the world our oyster and this will hopefully be completely true of each and every one of us in the class. I also hope that we are able to educate, teach and inspire others to think about the world we live in and challenge others to make a difference.

These are thoughts on how I am feeling and what I think I can expect out of the journey ahead. Alberta Lee Cox said that “It’s not enough to be good if you have the ability to be better.” I sincerely believe that this is one of the many mantras that the Beyond Borders Class of 2011 is living and I encourage you to do the same. Every day we should challenge one another to be better than we were the day before. This does not mean going to another country or even to a soup kitchen like some of our students will be doing before they go on their international experience. Doing better means making a conscious effort to improve self, friends, family, your community and eventually your world. Never doubt what one small act can do to transform the world around you. I vow to continue to try and I hope you will follow with me on this journey.