I Believe in the Global Perspective

My life began at the age of eighteen. Two months shy of my nineteenth birthday, I left American soil and crossed the Atlantic ocean to see the world. A world I had prepared to embrace and longed to see through my own eyes, eyes which had seen life through tinted glasses, providing only a narrow and colorless view of human existence. For nineteen years I was pregnant with anticipation, awaiting the moment the glasses could be taken off, awaiting a new definition of perception to be realized. In my home I am almost an adult but abroad I have become a child once more, encountering senses that had only been previously imagined. I find myself tripping as I learn to walk on foreign land but am constantly inspired by the view standing offers. A view that did not exist in America but could only be visible in the territory of the unfamiliar.

I traveled to discover the fjords of Norway, the churches of St. Petersburg, to walk along the canals of Amsterdam, and to indulge in Belgian’s culinary delights. I traveled to experience the Greek isles and city walls of Dubrovnik, to stand before the Great Pyramids of Giza and the Taj Mahal of Agra. I have swum in the Mediterranean and the Ganges, cried out of frustration and homesickness, and exclaimed in astonishment and joy. Each moment is filled with discovery, with enlightenment, and enchantment. Travel provides my mind with insight and understanding of the immense diversity this world offers. I believe in the global perspective, one that recognizes thought and human behavior from a multitude of backgrounds. A global perspective is a measure of acceptance, of willingness, and of faith. It is living as a tree with dozens and dozens of branches, reaching for the sky that is the world and seeing that same world from different angles. Each place brings new sunlight into my sphere, letting me grow in ways I never imagined. If I were to stay in one place, living in the same environment, I would live as a solitary trunk, without the gift of change providing the nutrients for a strong and healthy life. A global perspective creates awareness and cradles tolerance. It allows the glasses of my past to vanish and reveals a world full of colors, of different shades of scenery and varied hues of culture. Of innumerable opinions, ideas, traditions, and hopes. I believe in the perspective of every human being.