what would happen if we all were to take
a year off and travel the world it’s a
hard question to answer but in the short
time that I’m standing before you I will
try and give at least one answer that I
believe can benefit everyone in this
room no matter what age now when I first
saw the theme for this event I was
honestly super excited I looked and saw
it said bursting the bubble so many
ideas were rolling around in my head
that it was hard to narrow it down to
one and as I frantically draw all down
notes it hit me when I was in my Rome
Italy hotel room traveling is that the
specific moment I realized in the words
of Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz I
wasn’t in Kansas anymore I was in a
completely different country where the
culture the traditions the rites the
rituals I had no idea about I was a
foreigner and they were the natives
there it was in kind of a good way to
put it a reality check my experience is
an experience which a lot of people who
have traveled can most likely relate to
it’s that jolt from life that says hey
you’re not you’re the only thing in the
world the world is a lot bigger than you
think it is so now for a quick survey
how many of you have traveled on a
missions trip whether with a church or
any other organization that offers that
kind of program awesome now how many of
you have seen the CNN Heroes series
which tends to document the lives of
people living in other countries doing
great things around the world awesome so
you can see how and I figured you’d
presume speaking to a Costa Rican farmer
or a Pakistani factory worker would be a
lot different than seeing on TV believe
me I love television television is one
of my favorite media outlets but nothing
comes close to true face to face human
interaction humans are genetically
social creatures we’re in our DNA
supposed to interact with others
so when we don’t interact with others it
creates isolationism isolationism is the
bane of human existence because it has
us create opinions that obviously aren’t
true because we have no other side to
tell us these opinions aren’t true and
sadly a lot of people in the world are
victims of isolationism and it’s not me
to say that it’s a bad thing they’re
just simply ignorant to the plights of
others I’ve met far too many people in
my life that are quick to assume
foreigners are here to just be lazy in
mooch off the United States government
and live off of our hard work but I
realized that’s not the case and a few
years ago my opinions changed greatly
when I went to Costa Rica in 2015 with
the st. Christopher’s freshman rising
freshman service trip I was a 5 foot
fresh out of middle school kid who
thought I was the center of the world
and it turns out I couldn’t have been
more wrong when I first arrived in San
Jose and I looked around into all the
signs in Spanish I thought to myself wow
this is a lot different than America and
when we took out and we went to the
Panama’s Costa Rican border and I took
out a boat to our village in which I
stayed I realized this is how people
live and people live in situations that
probably a lot of us couldn’t even
imagine unless we go there now when I
stayed with a host family which was
personally my highlight of the trip I
didn’t know what to expect
these are people who of course I had
never met before and I would be
practically living with them for about
five days and they’re about four people
in this family and it was headed by this
main person who was the father and when
I looked at and saw what he did he would
get up an hour before sunrise and he
wouldn’t go to bed until about midnight
our time and I thought to myself this is
the ideal figure of a father someone who
is willing to do everything for the
people he loves and the people he
supports and when I had the chance to
finally sit down and talk to him he told
me exactly what I thought
that all he wanted in life was for the
people around him to be supported and to
be well fed and to be happy it burst my
bubble of ignorance I realized that no
as a foreigner he’s not lazy he’s not
someone who doesn’t work he’s someone
who works probably a lot harder than
some people in America do and it made me
think that isolationism is a huge
problem that I’ve been ignorant for far
too long I may never meet that man again
but if I were I would tell him thank you
for all that he’s done for teaching me
about the wonders of the rainforest and
teaching me about the ancient fables and
myths and my favorite how to shoot the
breeze in Spanish to delve into another
quick story I went to Rome Italy for
xterm this year with st. Christopher’s
and during a couple of the days we were
allowed to go in trios and groups and
explore the city of Rome and I loved
Rome because Rome is so inviting and
warm and it feels like everyone there is
willing to give a smile and have you
come in and try a slice of pizza or a
little bit of pasta which made me very
happy and for me I love music a lot of
you may know that but when I travel to
Rome I thought to myself I’m going to go
at least to at least one Italian music
shop and see if they’re any different
than the ones in the United States and
so I search street corner and street
corner when I finally came upon a music
shop in Italy I struck up a short
conversation with a shop owner
I couldn’t understand much of what he
was saying but then he began speaking in
a language that needs no words he began
speaking with music music is a universal
language because no matter what language
you speak orally you can feel music and
you can feel the emotions that people
present with music when he played a
short piano sonata for me I thought to
myself that how does this person who
I’ve never met before share the same
level of passion for music that I do and
so when I came over and played a short
waltz I felt that I wasn’t good enough
because I was simply in awe of how
amazing this guy was at music now I
don’t tell these two
worries to share political motive or to
make you feel sad that you aren’t
traveling or to get you to immediately
go traveling I’m simply telling you
these stories because I just want you to
think for a moment think about going out
and traveling because I believe every
single one of you can share these
experiences that I didn’t we can break
old habits and create bonds that you may
never see them again will last a
lifetime we should create programs that
allow people to travel maybe four months
long programs we can have it so you work
to pay off the expenses of your travel
in your hotel Billings but of course
that’s a far-fetched theory so if you
have the time to take a semester abroad
or go travel for the summer or spring
break I say do it I say all of this
hoping that you call you all can spread
my message of travel and love so that
eventually in the words of michael gira
from one of my favorite bands swans we
can create a little more peace in the
world so to go back to the original
question of what would happen if we all
took a year off I can answer it simply
we can take small but necessary steps to
create peace in our world thank you all and have a good rest of you