Booked!

Everything is BOOKED, team!

4 flights,

2 hostels,

1 bed and breakfast,

2 Universities,

2 dorms,

CHECK!

Wow. I am one of the few lucky ones who gets to live her dream. My deepest gratitude to The Rotary Foundation and the phenomenal Rotarians in Greater Los Angeles and Greater London who have kicked off my adventure in service beyond borders. The passion and generosity you have shown have never ceased to amaze me with joy and gratitude. I will surely pay it forward.

Father Pedro Arrupe, S.J. said, "Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything." Who knew falling in love with service, social justice, inclusion, solidarity, peaceful activism, and political theory would determine this (keep reading for an itinerary of my "I can't believe I really get to do this" adventures).

In short, this is kinda how I feel right now:

Except that I'm a vegetarian. So it should say, "OMG!!! VEGAN DUCK!!!"

This is all google images could find...

READY???? HERE WE GO!! Leaving June 11th, 2009!

First Stop: New York City, 1 week

To Do:

1. See some spoken word and a broadway show.

2. Visit the United Nations.

3. Visit some friends who are closing the achievement gap as Teach for America teachers.

4. Re-connect with middle school friends who are chasing their dreams as actors in New York City. I love America. And starving artists. They make the world go 'round.

5. Visit Dan at Fordham University (because I love Jesuit education and want to be a Resident Minister one day. Mine were awesome. Thanks, Marty and Lydia!)

6. Visit Columbia University and talk to some people at SIPA, School of International and Public Affairs (because I love school and social justice).

Second Stop: Birmingham, UK for the 100th Rotary International Convention and World Peace Symposium! 1 week

To Do:

1. Meet my Rotary Counsellor, Colin, from the Rotary Club of Harrow, Greater London!!! Woohoo!! He's been so helpful with preparing me for the big move. Many thanks, sir!

2. Meet Desmond Tutu. I BETTER get a ticket to the World Peace Symposium. They have a few tickets left on site. Can anybody make sure I get one? Please??? I mean, he was at LMU... But now I have a tote bag from LMU with a Desmond Tutu quote on it. I wonder if he'll remember that he said it. "Do your little bit of good wherever you are. It's those little bits of good that overwhelm the world."

3. Visit the CADBURY CHOCOLATE FACTORY!!!

I'm SUCH a five year old. You have no idea how excited I am about this.

Thrid Stop: Geneva, Switzerland 9 weeks

To Do:

1. Take French courses at the Universite de Geneve for 9 weeks, 20 hours a week. Trying to become fluent so I can understand more people in the world and can work for an international organization.

2. Do/eat/purchase things stereotypically Swiss. Be neutral, eat swiss cheese, buy some Lindt chocolates...

3. Be able to read Le Petit Prince without cheating (I also purchased The Little Prince in English...)

4. Make some friends at some international organizations to learn about the wonderful work they do. This is why they made me Rotary business cards. =)

Final Stop!: King's College London!

To Do:

1. Get MA in Human Values and Contemporary Global Ethics by September 2010

2. Decide on one of the following topics for my Masters dissertation: global citizenship, global governance, women's asylum and refugee services, global prison reform, global governance of multi-national corporations, demilitarization. I know, super interesting, right??? My brain is so excited right now.

3. Volunteer with the Jesuit Refugee Service

3. Know public transit in my sleep. Thanks for the awesome map and guide, Sam!

4. Make some sense of the world. Better sense of the world.

5. Lift up hearts, Sursum style.

Oh, the opportunities. I've always been baffled by things like blatant injustice, war, exploitation, and the kind of solidarity that constructs and alienates "the other." And now, I get to explore these issues academically and prepare myself to address them. What an opportunity. Giving it my every bit of focus, talent, and cool passion.

I'm currently reading The Alchemist by Paulo Coehlo, and he opens with reasons people fail to realize their dreams. Most of those reasons don't make much sense to me because I'm too youthfully idealistic. Children just don't believe in limitations and make no room for paralysis.

But there's one I can somewhat connect with. It's the fear that our dreams realized won't be as good as our dreams imagined. Will it really be as amazing as we pictured it in our heads? I'm a bit afraid to find out. But I am about to find out. How many of us really go to to find out if our dreams are really as good as we imaged them? Will a graduate education at a Top 25 World University really make me an effective warrior for social change, as I imagine? Will I maintain the cool passion and critical fire for service and social justice and continue to grow, as I imagine? Will I remain grounded, authentic, and humble in my endeavors under the limelight, as I imagine? Or will I finish in September 2010 and say, "That's it?" Y'know, it may be the youthful idealist in me, but I highly doubt that I'll be saying "That's it." I think it'll be more like, "Whoa. So that was it." and be more prepared to serve others.

As Benito from the Historic Filipinotown Rotary Club said in the invocation at the District 5280Conference, we can only pray for the abilities to match the opportunities.

There are lots of rational reasons to fear completing your dream (good thing we're not foolish enough to always succumb to reason). There's a character in The Alchemist who never follows his dream of taking the pilgrimage to Mecca because it's the dream of Mecca that keeps him alive. If he goes, what other reason does he have to live? One of my favorite mentors, Dino Entac, Director of Resident Ministry at LMU reminded us during Resident Advisor training that everything we do, we do in service to one another. It's never "over" and we are never "finished" because we are always called to serve. To invite those on the margins to the table. There is always more work. But work in serving as equals rather than helping as the privileged woman's burden is always life-giving and never exhausting. More of these thoughts in my senior column I wrote for the Loyolan.

Well, as Father Lawton, my University president and one of my favorite speakers, spiritual leaders, and human beings ever said, "When we go deep, things become very simple."

So, quite simply: thank you, see you later, and I'll remember to pay it forward. =)

Love,

Cynthia