Starting my adventure: the plane ride over

I’m on the plane right now headed for a layover in Texas and then on to Guatemala. I feel several emotions. I just put down the book I, Rigoberta Menchu: An Indian Woman in Guatemala, a book I read as an undergraduate at UW nearly 6 years ago. Within pages, a flood of emotions came over me, reminding me of the oppression and torture of the indigenous in Guatemala. I quickly remember why I chose to volunteer the next 3 months in Guatemala rather than some vacation destination like Costa Rica or the Mexican coast where I could sip Margaritas and learn Spanish all the same.
I am a person of privilege. Somehow I was dealt the cards to be born into a white middle class family in Seattle, WA. Today I read about Rigoberta, who has so little. I look at my $80 waterproof R.E.I. sandals which probably weren’t necessary to buy. It would take the average Guatemalan 8 days to buy these shoes. My counterparts (I say this because we are all human beings) are earning mere cents a day doing back-breaking work. Our lives are so different and the only way I can explain why I have so much and they have so little is because I was born into privilege and they weren’t. It’s that simple.
Sure, I could go to the coast and enjoy the luxury of plopping down right in the center of an American-made tourist destination (which is not to say that I don’t do this from time to time and enjoy), but I feel that the only way to remedy the disparity that exists between my counterparts and myself is to learn from them and find ways to not be one more person to use my privilege to further oppress (whether out of ignorance or choice). It won’t be easy to change my habits, but if I have to look poverty directly in the face maybe I will see the faces of my unborn children because no child chooses poverty. I could just have easily been born in a third-world country as could my own children.
I know I will benefit personally from this cultural interaction. My world is fast-paced and often centered around material, entertainment, and the latest “i-whatever” that Apple has released. No matter who you are or what you do, you will be hard-pressed to find time and space to get away from our cultural norms. Being in a different culture gives one the ability to not just see the world as “the way things are,” but to conscientiously understand the customs in ones’ own culture and to decide whether they are helpful or harmful in one’s own life and in the lives of others.
We are all creatures of habit. I will miss my family and my boyfriend Scott whom I spend the majority of my time with. For the past 2 years I have lived in an environment of comfort. My family is within walking distance, I live in the community I grew up in; a world I know all too well. Now I step out of this “environment of comfort” to confront a world I do not know. I believe that the feeling of uneasiness from deep within may be a sign of fear, stress, awkward moments, but it is the window of time that we grow the most. It means we are confronted with a challenge and must adapt. To adapt is to grow and change. That’s why I am here! I just heard the announcement to turn off my laptop because we are preparing for landing. I am full of emotions, mostly of excitement. I now see a new world outside the window and I can’t wait to meet it.