It all came together like a this. I wanted 3 things that were seemingly mutually exclusive: spiritual retreat, to see my family, and learn about human rights on a global level. All were happening at the same time. In true Annie fashion ~ I wanted my cake and to eat it too. From reading Eat, Pray, Love the second time, I discovered that Elizabeth Gilbert suffered a similar dilemma. Instead of sacrificing one for the other, she went to followed her stomach, soul, and sex-drive to Italy, India, and Indonesia.
Inspired, I too fashioned a unique 18-day travel extravaganza. The breakdown is as follows:
3 days of meditation retreat in Julian
5 days of New York City with sister, brother-in-law and nephew
10 days of intense leadership training with 65 participants from over 55 countries.
Check us out! By the way, I'm in the front row, 5th from the right... and sorry whomever I'm blocking with my head.
It honestly felt like being at the Olympics with the overwhelming amount of cultural diversity (or an average day in Queens, NY~ I'm not being facetious... statistics show that Queens is in fact the most diverse city in the world).
See all of our fun name tags? On it was our name and country of origin. It was like opening a present every time you met someone. Super fun highlight!!! We took a field-trip the the United Nations headquarters. They wouldn't let us into the General Assembly because Beyonce was practicing her song 'I Was Here' for World Humanitarian Day (AND WE HEARD HER).
What I didn't expect was the amount of love and camaraderie I felt. They told us we would become family , and well... we did. Guess what?! I had a dream about a reunion and two days later, they're planning one. I've always dreamed of doing something like this, of interacting with people from around the world to do something for the greater good. I dreamed it, and I was here.
