Beyond the Borders

I have been lucky. I’ve had the unique opportunity to do some traveling around the globe, and I actually currently live in Japan. After growing up in a small Wisconsin town, my perceptions of the world were, well, quite small. I rarely saw people of different ethnic origins, and was surrounded by middle-class white republicans. My world was small. How many of us can relate to this feeling?

All I knew was I wanted to break free. There was a big world out there, and many issues far beyond what I have experienced. I wanted to learn more about what it’s all about.

Little did I realize at the time, it would be the best adventure of my life thus far.

I’m sure I will blog more about my experiences in the future, so I will keep the stories brief at the moment. However, I will say this: my eyes have been opened to the world much more than before. I still have so much to learn, but I’m getting there.

Life is tough for anyone. I know that. However, the world is so much bigger than our own personal groups and concerns. Think beyond your life and the lives of people immediately around you. At any given time there are people living, breathing, crying, laughing, dying.

See the Japanese school girl studying from 6am until 10pm, just to go to sleep and start all over again.

See the Cambodian boy begging a tourist to buy a $1 postcard outside his one-room hut covered in palm branches.

See the Roman children plotting to pickpocket someone to earn money for dinner.

See the Vietnamese woman carrying baskets of brown bananas to the market in hopes to sell to others, who probably don’t have any more money than her anyway.

If you see them, you can no longer think about our problems of a missing sock or a nasty zit on our forehead. We can continue to live our little lives thinking only of our own little worlds, or we can choose to see the real world. What are you going to do?

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