Coleen Jose

It’s too rare that we’re drunkenly aware.  Aware of our surroundings, that one conversation in a busy street or the first conscious, deep breath you take upon stepping out of baggage claim and arriving outside, in a new place.  We’re reminded that life means discovery.  Yet, the word discovery is trivial.  Did Christopher Columbus really discover a land mass that was already there, with its own inhabitants, flora, fauna, kings called chiefs and Jesus Christ named Mother Nature? It’s trivial.  If Christopher’s ‘discovery’ had an angelic twin, it would be a species that a college student’s semester abroad encounters.  It’s some kind of aware.

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The countdown begins at 43.  That’s how many days there are left until our group of Davidson students pack a life into two suitcases for four months in India.  I returned to the blessed U.S.A.  from the Philippines last Tuesday.  This past week has felt like the weight of 17,500 miles.  That’s how much I’ve traveled in July.  It was a month of exploring, swimming and learning about Gawad Kalinga’s sustainable community development.  Nation building takes unheralded individuals linked by a common dream.  And it’s working.

Truth be bold, I’m beginning to freak out about India.  In all the glory of that phrase.  Wound up, weary, wired–I need to run and dance, India.