From sensory deprivation to sensory overload.
A couple nights ago, I arrived in Kolkata, India after over 26 hours of traveling. I left Arizona Tuesday, June 25th around 10am and arrived in Kolkata around 1am Thursday, June 27th. I got to our flat around 3am, passed out, then woke up the next morning for work at ASED, the Association for Social and Environmental Development. Julia and Dana, the other two Global Fellows in my placement, got here earlier this week, so I have been spending the past few days playing catch up. The new experiences have been pretty exciting, and are even more exciting when you bag doesn’t come! Luckily, I have it now, but for the first three days, I lived out of my one bag I brought on the plane.
The highlight of my voyage halfway around the world was a 15 hour flight from LA to Hong Kong. The last of three movies I watched on this super fun excursion was First Man, starring Ryan Gosling, about the Apollo 11 mission to the moon. The film featured a clip from one of my favorite speeches, JFK’s moon speech at Rice in 1962. This same speech is clipped in John John Florence’s View From A Blue Moon, where I first heard these lines that I have remembered ever since:
Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked why did he want to climb it. He said, “Because it is there.”
Well, space is there, and we’re going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God’s blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked.
When I thought about whether or not I should spend my summer in India, this came to mind. It is only fitting that during my trip to India, this came up again. My family, my friends, and even myself would ask, “Why India? Why go?” and to quote Kennedy again,
But why, some say, the moon? Why choose this as our goal? And they may well ask why climb the highest mountain? Why, 35 years ago, fly the Atlantic? Why does Rice play Texas?”
to which he replies,
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
Herein lies my same response. The decision to come to India and the subsequent decisions that have followed have all led to this challenge. This is the mindset I arrived with in India and hope to continue my next six weeks with ASED. So far the transition has been a rollercoaster of fun and hardship, yet the ride has just begun. This weekend, we toured around Kolkata and wound up at a rooftop bar eating brownies and ice cream, a sweet respite from the heat, and I’m not just talking the weather.
“Looking forward,
Jk lol signing off,
Brendan”
Nick
🥚
