What Will Your Story Be?

A moment to pause and reflect on this journey, this incredible experience, this time in my life in Ghana, wondering what I will tell people when I return home.

“How was Ghana?”

This is my story. It starts with a girl who had no idea what to expect, who went to the airport bathroom and didn’t know if she could get on the plane.

And three months later this girl is realizing that soon she will leave this wonderful place, that soon she will be heading back home – this is my story.

“Ghana was unbelievable. It was a great experience,” that’s all that I will be able to say. But behind those few words are all of the moments that built me, that changed me, that are a part of me now…

Tro-tro rides, the numerous times I was called obruni, the marriage proposals, standing alone at the front of a classroom of thirty-five students, attempting to teach one and two-year-olds, running around the neighborhoods, becoming friends with my credit man, learning from Grandma, happy hour at Luscious Temptations, traveling around Ghana, asking questions about everything, eating Jollof rice and friend plantains, classes at University of Ghana, cooling off with a FanIce, and all that I can’t put into words.

My story is one of development, one in which I am forming my own definition, my own opinions.

Development – listening, learning, and understanding another way of living. Taking from those teaching moments what matters to you, deciding what you want to actively change, and reflecting on who you already are. Asking questions about what you think you know and realizing that there is so much that you don’t know. And then becoming aware that development is not always in one’s control, that only with help, with support can it occur, that sometimes those that we think are supporting us are hindering us, that sometimes we have to let go, sometimes we have to go on our way, but my journey, my development has not been alone, it has only been possible with all of you supporting me.

A story that ends with you, that ends with me thanking everyone for giving me this chance. It ends with this girl, this white girl, getting back on an airplane.