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[post_content] => If you did not already see it, we highly recommend that you head over to Dragons Instagram feed to check out the truly impressive visual artistry of the Bridge Year Bolivia group....
[post_title] => Featured Instagram Photos & Videos from the Princeton Bridge Year Bolivia Group
[post_excerpt] => If you did not already see it, we highly recommend you head over to Dragons Instagram feed to check out the truly impressive visual artistry of the Bridge Year Bolivia group...
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If you did not already see it, we highly recommend you head over to Dragons Instagram feed to check out the truly impressive visual artistry of the Bridge Year Bolivia… Read More
Selected by peers, family, friends and strangers from the Dragons community, we're proud to announce the winners of the Photo Contest from our Fall 2018 Gap Year Programs!
I began my Dragons journey with all of my future plans in limbo. This was no accident; it was an intentional creation of space for something wildly new to grow. Because I am a person who has craved control over much of her life, who feels most comfortable when a sturdy plan is in sight, I knew that if I wanted to learn anything real about uncertainty and maybe, eventually, trust, I had to leave the second half of my gap year unscheduled.
The thought of coming home after this Dragons trip without any real plans burdened me with anxiety for the first third of the adventure. I carried a kind of fear in my chest, a voice that asked me sometimes, What if you get stuck? What if this adventure is your only one? But I told myself, this is good for you. This uncertainty is what you need. Because you see, I also began my gap year with a kind of philosophy, a half-formed theory in mind.
I carried a kind of fear in my chest, a voice that asked me sometimes, What if you get stuck?
It’s an idea about trust: I want to believe in, or at least live by, the hope that if I give my energy and my efforts to the life I want to lead, things will come to me. Roads will open up for me if I trust enough in their possibility. I believe that that kind of trust and my willingness to engage with the world matters; I believe it plays a part in the unfolding of my life’s events. I think of it all as kind of a net. The net can be anything at all- a kind human being, a seemingly magical coincidence, a piece of good news, a story, or a door swinging open to a new journey. Like a crowd of people carrying a singer, or a friend… it is what catches you when you’ve gathered up enough courage and trust to let yourself fall.
Leaving this part of my gap year empty felt like falling. I had (and have) no plans to attend college yet. Along with some other reasons, I wanted to see how far this wave of adventurous living could take me. I wanted to see what could come of a lifestyle that revolved around that idea of trust and flow.
This uncertainty is what you need.
In a kind of practice for my time post-Dragons, I learned to trust in small things on our three-month journey. My best example of this is the day that I let my friends cut my hair. One day, nearing the end of our final, 8-day trek, my group and I set up our tents, ate plates of pasta and organized gear. Then we gathered on the grass of the campsite with scissors and pocket knives, and a small ceremony began. I wore Ella’s rain poncho as a makeshift barber’s cloak, we ran a comb through my hair, and then, one by one, everyone cut a piece. I felt the dull pair of scissors that Edson, our guide, had brought from the kitchen house, go straight up the side of my skull, and I knew there was no going back, no resisting anymore. It was like a metaphor for the entire journey: I had to have trust in each one of the people who were taking part in this experience. It was my first haircut without a mirror, with only the faces of my beautiful friends to read as they piled onto the grass in front of me after cutting their piece (pictured in the photo above!). They looked worried, which worried me, but they all encouraged me with love. In the end, when I did look in the mirror, I was thrilled (and surprised) to see that it was honestly the best haircut I’d ever had. The care that my friends had taken with me, the energy that they had put into their work, was part of what made it special. I want to remember now how that kind of trust can lead to something beautiful.
They looked worried, which worried me, but they all encouraged me with love.
As I move now into the uncharted territory of my post-Dragons year, I think of all that I will carry with me from this trip, that lesson in trust being one of them. Our Ana, who led us in a ceremony on the last night of our adventure, told us to “guardar en sus corazones este viaje, como un recuerdo bonito.” To keep this journey in our hearts, like a beautiful memory. I want it to be a memory that lends itself to action. This has been a journey that has taught me how to be patient, how to think deeply, how to be respectful, how to have more courage, how to listen well. I will carry so many of the things that it gave me into the rest of my life.
Stepping into the airport of my home city yesterday, I thought, over and over again: It will be hard to tell the whole story.
It has been 24 hours now, and I’m still at a loss for proper words. Any real retelling of the past three months would be full not only of the things that I have lived, but would dive, also, into the imagined perspectives of other lives. This story is not just mine. To tell it, to express its complexity and richness, its reality and its surreality, to understand and to explain each of the implications and impacts that it had on every person that it touched, is an impossible task that I’ll never undertake in one Yak alone. Some things can’t be written at all.
Our Ana, who led us in a ceremony on the last night of our adventure, told us to “guardar en sus corazones este viaje, como un recuerdo bonito.” To keep this journey in our hearts, like a beautiful memory.
The story of this viaje will escape my being in a myriad of colorful ways; in conversations full of laughter with my family and friends, in the newly-conscious choices that I’ll make as a consumer, in my dreams at night of the places and people I’ve left behind, in my newfound love for spontaneous backyard haircuts, in every plan I make as I decide what roads I want to take next. The story of this semester will tell itself, will find its way from my memories and into my life every day, even when I am not aware of it. It’ll linger in my physical form: my legs harboring the faint remains of hundreds of mosquito bites from the Amazon; my shoulders still sore but made stronger by carrying my heavy pack, the choppy, short haircut through which I will tell, for a little while, the story of all of my friends.
Two days ago, I was in Urubamba, waking up in a room full of friends, trying to get some breakfast into my nervous, emotional stomach, stretching my arms out of the window of a bus and feeling like flying. Two days ago I was saying goodbye: to the small apple orchard and to the owners of the Sacred Valley hostel where we stayed, to the cobblestone streets of downtown Cusco, to the the sun-warm and elegant mountains of the Cordillera Real. To my dear friend Emmy, and to my three instructors who I have come to love and admire so deeply. Looking out the window of our first airplane, I took my last look at Peru in the light of day. My last, for a while. For a little while.
I wasn’t expecting any grand transformations to come from these three months of travel. Yet this experience has changed me beyond any physical marks...
My backpack is still half-full, and small reminders of the adventure are strewn about my bedroom. When I left home, I said I wasn’t really going to change, that I wasn’t expecting any grand transformations to come from these three months of travel. Yet this experience has changed me beyond any physical marks, and what a transformative three months this has been. I have been changed by the love I have received, been challenged by it too; have grown up in the face of the worlds that have been shown to me, larger and more complex than anything I knew at home. Coming back home now, unpacking my memories, I am surprised by small differences that are markers of the person I’ve become. The gal that I’m becoming. She’s ready to fall in, now. To be brave with whatever comes next. I carry now in my heart, in place of fear, the light of possibility.
I carry now in my heart, in place of fear, the light of possibility.
Thank you, Dragones.
Love, Tabita.
[post_title] => I SAID I WASN’T GOING TO CHANGE - A Featured Student Reflection
[post_excerpt] => Please enjoy this lovely featured reflection written by Tabita Doujad, a student on the Fall 2018 South America: Andes & Amazon Semester (Group A).
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Please enjoy this lovely featured reflection written by Tabita Doujad, a student on the Fall 2018 South America: Andes & Amazon Semester (Group A). Read More
I study the menu, running my finger along the laminated sheet as I try to decipher the eclectic assortment of Burmese dishes. Today is Thanksgiving, and I’m determined to have a proper Thanksgiving feast. In the end, I have to substitute a tomato chicken curry in place of the turkey, with a side of steamed white rice for stuffing. I know finding cranberry sauce will be impossible, so I settle for a bunch of grapes. But though I lost my beloved pumpkin pie this year, I have gained so much more to be thankful for.
they have welcomed a bumbling foreigner like me into their country with open arms...
I’m thankful for my fellow Dragons here, both peers and instructors. We’ve shared laughter and tears, germs and endless amounts of curries. They have become my family here, driving me to grow and supporting me as I test the limits of my comfort zone. My experience here would not have been the same without them. I’m thankful for their parents too, for giving me the chance to spend the last three months with their kids.
I’m thankful for my family on the other side of the ocean too. Alexander and Cat, Mum and Dad. They believed in me when I first said I wanted to spend 83 days in this mysterious country 16 hours away from home, and helped make my dream into a reality. I’m especially thankful this year for my grandfather. He is the reason I chose to come to this country in the first place. He worked for many years for a charity called Prospect Burma, an organization which is dedicated to helping talented Burmese youth gain access to higher education in renowned institutions all over the world. I recently visited the headquarters of the charity in Yangon, and meeting some of the alumni I know I’m not the only one who is grateful. My grandfather truly loved and believed in this country’s future, even when the world said their was no hope. I’m thankful I can call this incredible man my Fafa.
And of course, I am thankful for the people of Myanmar. They have fed me lunch, even though we don’t speak a word of each other’s language. They have offered me their beds, even though it means they will have to sleep on the floor. They have welcomed a bumbling foreigner like me into their country with open arms, even though I still can’t pronounce their names. Myanmar is an unbelievably beautiful country, but it is the warm smiles of the people I met here that amazed me the most.
Happy Thanksgiving to all across the ocean!
(If you’re interested in learning more about Prospect Burma, check out this their website: prospectburma.org)
[post_title] => THANKSGIVING ACROSS THE OCEAN
[post_excerpt] => As our yaks from current programs are usually a week delayed, we're posting this lovely holiday reflection from past participant, Emma, of the Myanmar: Buddhist Traditions & Transformation Semester to celebrate the flavors of thankfulness this week.
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As our yaks from current programs are usually a week delayed, we're posting this lovely holiday reflection from past participant, Emma, of the Myanmar: Buddhist Traditions & Transformation Semester to celebrate… Read More
At Dragons HQ, we're head-over-heels for all the experiences and sentiments captured so beautifully in this fabulous video made by Laura Berry of the Fall 2017 Nepal Semester... Read More
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[post_date] => 2018-10-04 09:30:02
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[post_content] => It was extremely hard for the committee to choose only three winners, but we've posted the 1-minute videos selected as our three top #dragonsvisualstory contest winners on Instagram this week.
You can watch the videos on instagram by clicking on the videos below...
[caption id="attachment_153754" align="aligncenter" width="460"] 1-minute visual story video by Katherine Marcus of Dragons Guatemala: Community in Action program.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_153752" align="aligncenter" width="460"] 1-minute visual story video made by Jenna Einhorn, a student on Dragons Summer 2018 Nepal - Traditions of the Himalayas Program.[/caption]
[caption id="attachment_153753" align="aligncenter" width="459"] 1-minute video from Vanessa Payne with imagery and sounds from this summer’s Guatemala Spanish Language Intensive 4-week course.[/caption]
Congratulations Vanessa, Jenna, and Katherine!
And thank you to ALL those who put love into their beautiful video contest submissions. They were an honor to watch!
Sincerely,
Dragons HQ
[post_title] => Announcing our Three 1-minute "Visual Story" Video Contest Winners!
[post_excerpt] => It was extremely hard for the committee to choose only three, but we're thrilled to announce and share with you the top three 1-minute videos selected as the #dragonsvisualstory contest winners...
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It was extremely hard for the committee to choose only three, but we're thrilled to announce and share with you the top three 1-minute videos selected as the #dragonsvisualstory contest winners... Read More
[post_title] => Featured Instagram Photos & Videos from the Princeton Bridge Year Bolivia Group
[post_excerpt] => If you did not already see it, we highly recommend you head over to Dragons Instagram feed to check out the truly impressive visual artistry of the Bridge Year Bolivia group...
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1-minute visual story video by Katherine Marcus of Dragons Guatemala: Community in Action program.[/caption]
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1-minute visual story video made by Jenna Einhorn, a student on Dragons Summer 2018 Nepal - Traditions of the Himalayas Program.[/caption]
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1-minute video from Vanessa Payne with imagery and sounds from this summer’s Guatemala Spanish Language Intensive 4-week course.[/caption]
