Volunteering in Thailand – Dream

You probably may ask, “Kyle, what is your aspiration in life, what do you strive to do?” Luckily for you, I have had a lot of thinking time on this Learn, Volunteer and Travel project and it has taken me seventeen years to come to this realization: all I want is to be human. I am in control of my own life.

I love to be perceptive to tangible concepts that can have a profound impact on the human race and the blue planet where we live. I think ultimately I make the decision to smile, regardless of the circumstances. The truth is being human or being your best self is not about perfection. Everyone you know has something they are not telling you. Seriously, we all have our secrets or unexpressed thoughts, everybody has something that they don’t share with the world, but they recognize that it is a part of themselves. These flaws that everyone is so self-conscious about, the qualities that make us unique, are beautiful things! Can you imagine if everyone on Earth was perfect? It would be such a boring place!

Why do you think I would fly eighteen hours to Thailand to teach at a school, halfway around the world? Because I am human. Because I realize that these children have the same spirit as all my friends back home. Of course these kids look different from me, they go to a school without air conditioning, and they speak a language which seems to me like squiggly letters, but in retrospect they are the same as me.

I was speaking to a kid with the name ‘ฝัน’ which literally translates to ‘Dream’. He is seventeen years old, has one brother, two loving parents, and two dogs, just like me. One of the English teachers helped me ask him the question, “what do you want to do with your life,” his response, ” I want to be happy, I want to help make a change in the world.” He has a dream, he has the light, he is human, he realizes that the world is a big place with not just him living in it.

I am so happy to live in a generation where I can put out my ideas into the world and get the response of a global community. We are not a generation closed off from the world, hindered by the screens just inches from our faces. We are inspiring, creative, amazing, and changing the world. We are a generation rooted in acceptance, progressive ideas, and a passion to make a difference. We don’t want to do everything online, we want to get out and see the world, to interact with people on other corners of the planet and be aware of the change that we can make. The media always makes it seem like humanity is on a terrible path, but there is less war than ever before, people are aware of human rights issues on the other side of the world, and we are able to be connected and perceptive to the necessities of the human condition.

Everybody has a voice to change the world, and it is totally possible. If everyone were in tune with themselves and humanity as a whole, the world would be even better. Ultimately, I realize that my life is my message to the world and that I’m going to do everything I can to make sure it’s inspiring. I hope that everyone reading this does what they can to be a human with a dream for good. I kept this blog a little bit shorter, just because you don’t need a lot of words to say so much. As Mahatma Gandhi states, “Be the change that you want to see in the world."