“Your whole heart is a village, everyone you love has built it”
Coming back to the United States was a very surreal experience. My journey abroad felt like one long, vivid dream that I had just woken up from. As a result, it was very hard to process everything that had just happened during the past five weeks and put it into words, and admittedly, sometimes it still is. Neither the pictures nor the videos that I took can truly capture the authentic experience I had living, eating, playing, and bonding with the students, mentors, and community members of Starfish International. At the beginning of my trip, having two worlds collide, America and The Gambia, felt like an out of body experience. But, now attempting to describe to my family and friends all that I got to see and do is now the true out-of-body experience.
Now, a little over a month after my return, I find myself reminiscing more than ever over my trip. As I start to see old friends back at school and I return to my old routines, I have begun to miss The Gambia very much, but rather with a new lens. Before, I missed the The Gambia because I missed the simplicity of the Gambian lifestyle, the joy of waking up to smiling kids running around laughing, playing, and singing, the camaraderie and jokes the mentors and volunteers shared on a day- to -day basis, and the list goes on! But, the other day I was listening to music and the song “Village” by the country singer Cam on and it changed my view of how I look at my trip. I had never heard this song before, but turned it up as it began to play. As it was playing, the lyrics “Your whole hearts a village, everyone you love has built it” struck a chord in my heart. I was in awe because those lyrics capture exactly how I feel about my experience. Although I miss everyone in The Gambia dearly, the opportunity to get to meet so many genuinely happy, hard-working, and inspiring people was priceless. I believe that every individual I met changed my life in some capacity, and as Cam so beautifully says it, built my heart to be the way it is today. With this new lens, I am forever grateful for the opportunity to grow as a person and have my heart reconstructed to love and admire simple living, authentic connections, and relentless endurance, three of the many characteristics that I saw in the people I met. Thank you Starfish for building my heart and changing it forever.
