Week 3 Update: New goals to make life more positive

Erick Stam stands in the future sight of the Village of Peace, a school for education and vocational training, on Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020 in Kigali, Rwanda. Erick is the current secretary for Ester’s Aid, the organization building the Village of Peace. He lived in Ester’s Aid when it was an orphanage after the 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi and now works there.

Right after getting back from Rwanda, aside from being tired and trying to get back into the swing of school, I would say the change in my life is small. (Another side note: being into the snow and the cold is not fun after spending 20 days in the warm weather.)

So, yeah, the change present in my life would just be my outlook. In Rwanda, everyone there is happy and optimistic and ready to take on life and its challenges. I am a very normally busy person and I take things head-on; sometimes I get bogged down with how much I have going on. Sometimes my attitude can turn sour, and for others around me and my mental state, that is not ideal. I have gone into this new year, new decade, new semester with the mindset of trying to be a better version of myself that I know I have in me. I cannot always promise that I will be the most positive and optimistic person in the room or that I will not get down on myself sometimes, but I can promise myself that I will always try to be the best version that I can be that day and hopefully the days add up to a new and improved Peyton and my outlook on the things I am doing.

Josephine Uwase and Jessi Flynn look at grains used to start the craft beer brewing process on Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020 in Kigali, Rwanda. Josephine brews sorghum beer, a traditional beer to Rwanda, as part of the process to start the first all-women run craft brewery in Rwanda.

Another thing relating to a new Peyton and change is that I want to be more adventurous. I made this a goal, not per se to go do crazy things like skydive, but to say yes to more things that I normally say no to or to open myself up to trying new things and doing things I already don’t. By starting out the new year and decade in a new country, I can say I have already gotten off to a good start.

I think that both of these things can lead to a change in my future. I want to work in sports photography, and I am pretty solid on that career path. The best thing about these trips is the fact that, yes, I may not want to do this for my life, but it gives me the experience and the chance to show that I am much more than the girl who can shoot a moving player running with a ball. Bruce always tells his students that any good photographer starts by learning how to shoot sports. After they have, they can shoot anything. I learned how to shoot sports; now, if I wanted, I could grab at the opportunity to travel the world and shoot photos or documentaries or be a newspaper photographer or work freelance or really anything that I wanted. Long story short, Rwanda provided another opportunity for me to help expand my portfolio, my views on the world and myself as a photojournalist.

The Nyamata Church Genocide Memorial, located in Nyamata, Rwanda, is one of the many 1994 Genocide against the Tutsi memorials located in Rwanda to commemorate the killings against the Tutsi people.

Travelers board the plane at the Kigali International Airport heading for Uganda and Brussels on Saturday, Jan. 11, 2020 in Kigali, Rwanda. The plane left at 8:45 p.m. and after a deboarding of some passengers and the boarding of new passengers in Uganda, the plane landed in Brussels about 6:30 a.m.

Bio: https://medium.com/university-of-nebraska-lincoln-global-eyewitness/peyton-stoike-9c99e16a903d

Week 1 What I Have Learned: https://medium.com/university-of-nebraska-lincoln-global-eyewitness/what-ive-learned-everyone-here-is-friendly-welcoming-and-kind-182e7f653f31

Week 2 Highlights: https://medium.com/university-of-nebraska-lincoln-global-eyewitness/week-2-highlights-the-act-of-body-language-can-stem-through-actions-and-kindness-75fe29e14d30