The Beginning

July 22, 2011

For years, I have kept a journal. Certainly with a variety of consistency but nonetheless, I kept it as a way to remember things I knew I would otherwise forget. As a young girl, I distinctly remember wondering if anyone would ever read what I wrote, or if they would find it interesting or important to their lives. I so wished that I could stumble across an old book, pages filled by the loving hand of its writer. I wanted to know someone’s story as they would tell it to themselves.

In my Watson interview, Jay Allison (my interviewer) and I got to talking about technology and how it has changed how the Watson experience plays out for the new generations of fellows. He recounted an experience where he was completely out of contact for a month in Russia. Because of the value he saw in this experience, he encouraged me to be in as little contact as possible with friends and family, and not to write a blog.

I respect Jay deeply, and his suggestion is something I have struggled with since November. Obviously, I have decided to write a blog, but I do so drawing on a very specific experience. When I traveled to Nepal for the Fall semester of my Junior year, I thought I would not contact anyone for weeks. I was going disconnect and it would be awesome. What I came to realize was that I really wanted to share the amazing experiences I was having with more than just the people I was living it with. I wanted to share with those who had done so much to send me there, and, though interested in going themselves, had made it possible for me to go instead.

I believe that the exchange of information and cultural ideas has great power. I have been lucky in my young life to be the first hand obtainer of such information, and in a world where such information can be valuable in creating understanding between people, I feel it is important, and perhaps critical, to share my perspective.

And it will just be that. My perspective. I am just one traveler, with one voice, telling one set of stories. I will do my best to report my experiences honestly, but I will inevitably be biased. Though, if I’ve learned nothing else from my Watson experience thus far, it is the process that counts. So here I go!

Thanks to all of you who have helped me out in one-way or another. Thank you for being there for me through thick and thin, for being caring companions, loving friends, and helpful strangers. The amazing part of the Watson experience is that it is lived by an individual fellow, but so many more people build it.