Fall has arrived!

Greetings friends! This post is long overdue with updates from an amazing start of the fall season. So much has been going on here in Toronto, I just haven't been able to keep up. We have We Days left and right, visits from friends, and weekend getaways!

Since my travels to Kenya, my life has gone back to normal (somewhat) with daily speeches and lots of We Day prep. On September 27, we hosted We Day Toronto in the Air Canada Centre. The arena was filled with 18,000 youth all cheering and chanting to save the world. I was excited to be a crowd pumper for Toronto We Day and had a blast teaching the We Day dance to a group of volunteers with friend, Kevin. Toronto's We Day hosted speakers such as Danny Glover, Mary Robinson, and Patch Adams, as well as performers such as City and Colour, Joe Jonas, and Shawn Desman. My highlight for Toronto We Day happened on accident... I ran into the bowl just as Nelly Furtado was beginning to speak and stopped because I remembered hearing she had a special announcement to make. I stood on the stairs as Nelly announced that she is donating $1 million to Free The Children to build another all girls secondary school in Kenya! It instantly brought tears to my eyes, then more tears as Susan - a student at Kisaruni (our all girl's secondary school in Kenya) - came out to surprise Nelly... it was the most beautiful moment I have witnessed in my five We Days. My other highlight from Toronto's We Day would have to be the special visitors we had... Like always, a group of AMAZING BSU students traveled to Toronto volunteer with us at We Day as crowd pumpers! I was expecting to see so many of my friends... but what I wasn't expecting was to see Kim MacInnis, another one of my BSU professors! She came with her daughter to surprise me, and it was the best surprise ever. I had a blast at the We Day after party hanging out with Kim and Jonathan all night, feeling like I never left BSU.

Just two weeks later, we were off to Vancouver for our second We Day of the season! Vancouver was similar to Toronto in the sense that there were 18,000 screaming youth... however, they were shamelessly louder and more excited! For Vancouver's We Day, I was on the Booths team, selling Me to We merchandise instead of Crowd Pumping... it was a big difference for me considering the four We Days I attended before Vancouver, I was always Crowd Pumping or at least in the bowl... so it was different. However, my volunteers were amazing and Jonathan came by my booth quite a few times to chat and catch up. My We Day moment for Vancouver also happened on accident... I popped my head into the bowl to see what part of the show we were on, when I saw Mia Farrow on stage. I decided to stay and listen because everyone says she's an amazing speaker... Suddenly she brings out the ripple effect analogy and follows it with, "let's stand against hunger! let's stand against injustice!", etc... and 18,000 youth stand with her in solidarity. It was amazing. We Day Vancouver consisted of speakers such as Mia Farrow, President Mikhail Gorbachev, and Shaq (well, kind of...), and had performers like Hedley (rocked it as always), Shawn Desman, and Down With Webster.

The weekend after We Day a lot of us stayed in Vancouver. When I say "I fell in love with the West Coast"... it's the understatement of the century. My friend, Kevin, who is from Vancouver, constantly would tell me I'd love it... and I'd always argue "I'm an East Coast girl", but man oh man, was it beautiful. I drove up to Whistler with Kevin, Derrick, Britt, Amber, and Dee for the night. We rode the highway that is known as the "Sea to Sky highway" because of it's views. We stopped every chance we could to take scenic pictures, friendly pictures, and absolutely ridiculous pictures. We spent the night in Whistler Village and just relaxed together. The following day we came back to Vancouver and split up to do our separate things. Kevin, Dee, and I went to the Granville Island brewery. After that we went to Kev's old university - UBC - and saw the views from there. We had to bring Kev's car back to his parents house before meeting everyone for dinner. His backyard view was of mountains... no big deal right? Finally we meet everyone for dinner and go out to a super nice club for the night before heading back to Toronto the following day. Everything about Vancouver was incredible - it was such a beautiful place... I can't wait to go back someday.

So... that has been life up to now. Currently, Nathaniel is visiting for the weekend, celebrating our one year anniversary :) I am back in the daily grind of speeches until We Day Waterloo next month then home for two weeks at Christmas time!

To see more of what my life has been like, check out our We Day website!

Cheers!

Where I'm at now...

Right now I am attempting to process my trip and everything it entailed: highs and lows. I am trying to wrap my head around the drought and famine I witnessed firsthand. I am trying to ground myself here in Toronto and write a new speech while scratching my head on what to do to help east Africans.

The trip, overall, was incredible. I had the chance to sit down with a Maasai warrior, on many occasions, and ask any questions I desired... and receive honest, proud answers in return. I walked into the trip petrified to facilitate with Sally, because frankly, she's a legend at FTC, and now I can say I wouldn't have had it any other way. I got the opportunity to facilitate any module I wanted to, or sit back and take notes as she facilitated ones I was too scared to. And in the end, I was able to learn and gain skills I may not have had I facilitated with someone else. But most importantly, I had the chance to see twenty-nine youth transform over the course of three weeks. I couldn't be more proud of the young people I traveled with, or more excited about their action plans and seeing how they will change the world.

However, at some point, we all need to come back to reality. While in Kenya, my reality was drought, famine, inequality... Here in Toronto, my reality is speech writing, We Day prep, and settling in to my new home. That being said, although our realities here in North America are very different than the realities in East Africa, it doesn't mean we can't work it into our realities. The most important thing we can each do, is educate us. If you take anything from these past few entries, I want it to be this article... Please take ten minutes and read last week's Global Voices in regards to the crisis in East Africa. Our brothers and sisters around the world are suffering, and we need to know the truth.

Now it's off to work on my own action plan... Kwa heri!

Kenya: Week Two and Three

Jambo! Habari ya hasabuhi? (Hello! How is your morning?)
Mzuri sana, nawawa? (Very Good, and you?)

Week two in the beautiful Maasai Mara of Kenya. During this week we had the usual adventures of the build site, chances to play with the kids, and visits to our Me to We Duka ("store") as well as other Me to We projects and experiences.

My biggest highlight from the second week in Kenya was definitely the Duka day. We got up early and traveled to our leadership center which houses our Duka. While there, we were able to purchase Me to We Artisan items. I got various gifts for my family as well as a couple things for myself. I got myself a "warrior package" which includes a shuka (to always remember Peter), a warrior bracelet that has the Maasai symbol (to always remember the Maasai), and a rungu because of its significance with leadership. The Duka had beautiful items like Maasai wedding necklaces and jewelry, as well as items like congos and Me to Bee honey. After we finished our adventure in the Duka we headed out to visit our tree nursery and get weapons training by Peter. We each got the chance to learn how to throw a conga which was pretty exciting! Finally, we ended the day at a tour of the Baraka Health Clinic and with a talk from Robin. It felt so good to see Robin again and hear her story all over. She truly is an inspiration to me and I feel so privileged to be able to call her a friend because she is just a very strong, motivated, and determined woman.

The week also consisted of various days for our participants to play with the kids after school. It was refreshing to watch them let loose and play different childhood games. It is incredible how easily kids can teach you games with such a language barrier... goes to show a little something we can learn from kids.

The last part of this week that I'll touch on was our "Community Day". The night before community day, we handed out family profiles to groups of participants. These profiles told them their family name, size, who the members were (ex. 1 mama, 1 baba, 4 kids, grandparent, etc), their assets (ex. goats, cows, maize), and their expenses for the week (ex. kids need their head shaved, medicine for sick family member, fixing a roof, school book, etc). We then read them out the average prices of these expenses and had them subtract theirs from the "average" $500 schillings ($5 US) a Kenyan family will have to spend a week. Their task was to bring that much money to the market the next day. The next day, we woke up the boys at dawn (about 6 a.m.) as the mamas for the day and they had to go fetch water. Once they returned, we had them doing everyone's laundry, cleaning the tents, doing the dishes... all the tasks a mama would do in the morning. While they were doing that, we woke up the girls and they were the "boys" for the day. They spent their morning being served breakfast and having "school" and Swahili lessons with Peter. The breakfast was a traditional Kenyan breakfast - Ugi, which is like a cream of wheat porridge. We then headed out to Mulot Market where the participants took the limited money they had (some had $80 schillings, some had $300 schillings - aka 80 US cents and $3 US) and bought the food they needed for the week for their family. When we returned to Osenetoi, we had a traditional Kenyan dinner of Ugali (ground up maize mixed with water to make a solid consistency) and cabbage.

One challenge I found with community day was dinner... Before we ate, Sally addressed the group and reminded us of the drought and famine happening in eastern Africa. She said, "you may not all like this meal and that's okay, but we are asking that you take a little bit to try then come up for more if you like it... we want to make sure we are doing our part by not wasting food". Everyone agreed... as we are eating our dinner, we see one of our participants walk up and throw out an entire plate of cabbage. I started to tear up and Sally was visibly angry as well. I stood up and addressed our frustration and disappointment to the group (without singling out the participant). We reminded them of the current situation and that this drought and famine were affecting people on the other side of the fence from us. It was just really hard for me that some of the youth didn't seem to care/understand (not sure which one since we addressed it so much) about the local issues affecting the community. It was definitely a struggle for me all trip.

Finally, part of community day was a visit to Kisaruni, Free The Children's first all girl high school in Kenya! The facilities were beautiful and it was so wonderful to hear the teachers talk about the students' commitment to their education. The girls would come for a full day with limited breaks and study ten subjects! As soon as you walk into the main building, you see pictures of all the girls that have won FTC scholarships to attend Kisaruni - it was incredible.

Week Three:

The end of the trip was packed with more leadership skills, lots of action planning, and safari day!

The safari was a long, but beautiful, day. We woke up at 5 a.m. so we could be awake with the animals, had a small breakfast, and were in the lorry ready to go. I can honestly say, if I don't sit in a lorry for a long time, I'll be very happy :) man is that thing bumpy! Anyways, we traveled for a few hours until we reached the game reserve and were greeted by lots of zebras and gazelles! Throughout the course of the day, we saw zebras, gazelles, buffaloes, water buffaloes, giraffes, monkeys, and various birds. Unfortunately, the lions and elephants must have been asleep that day because they were MIA. For me, I was happy with the zebras... Anyone that knows me knows that as a kid I wanted to be a zookeeper so I could play with zebras all day. It was beautiful and exhilarating to see these animals in their natural habitat.

We ended the trip with a few days of action planning. We introduced the idea of "Passion + Issue = Change" to encourage them to think of ways they could do what they love and raise awareness/money for various causes. At the end of the week, the group had incredible plans! Some included sports tournaments to raise money for sports equipment to be sent to communities in Kenya, water walks to raise money for clean water, and giving presentations at their schools to raise awareness of global issues. The passions ranged from skateboarding to soccer to public speaking; the issues ranged from clean water to sex trafficking to animal rights... Action planning is my favorite part of any academy/trip/workshop because it is the tangible part that gives youth the confidence to know they can actually do something about these issues. It reminds me why I do my job day in and day out.

Kenya: Week One

Jambo!

As you know, on July 21 I headed to the Toronto City airport to meet the first group of youth for our Me to We trip to Kenya. We then travelled to Montreal to meet another group before heading to Nairobi! From the second I arrived at the airport, all I could think was "Wow, two years ago I was trying to fundraise to go on a Me to We trip to Kenya... now I am facilitating one", it was exciting!

The first couple of days consisted on lots of traveling. We stayed at a place just outside of Nairobi for the night, and were on the road early to head to Osenetoi. On the way, we stopped at a giraffe sanctuary to learn about the beautiful animals. While there, you are allowed to feed the giraffes... which resulted in everyone (including myself) kissing a giraffe! I was speaking with some of the people that worked there and when I mentioned that I worked for Free The Children their eyes lit up. They engaged me in conversation to tell me how incredible the work we do at FTC is and how much they appreciate it. It was so great to hear that.

After the sanctuary we continued on to Osenetoi and stopped at the Great Rift Valley for some lunch. It was a breath-taking view and while we were eating, another Me to We facilitator (and a FAM for Change facilitator) stopped by with his group! I was surprised to see Steve but then Sally (my co-facilitator) said it is very common to run into the other groups while in-country.

Once we got to our campsite, we went over camp etiquette and told the group a bit about the drought and famine that are happening in Kenya. We agreed to a clean plate policy so we could do our part in not wasting food while we were there - the kids agreed to it which was really inspiring to see. We spent each morning of that week at the buildsite working on two classrooms for the youth of Osenetoi. The group was really excited to be building and got so much accomplished!

The highlight of the week for many people was when we went on a water walk with Mama Purity and Mama Rose. We walked with them until we reached a borehole which was filled with water that looked more like chocolate milk. It hit me when Mama Purity and Mama Rose walked down the side, knelt down, and started filling jerry cans... that these families drink, cook, and bathe with this water. I watched as the Mamas filled jerry can after jerry can then took a long rope and wrapped it around each can. Finally, the called over youth one by one, and slowly put the strap around the youth's forehead. Suddenly 20 litres of Osenetoi's water problem was on each person's back. While walking, Mama Purity informed Sally and I that during the worst times of the drought, they sometimes have to walk for four days with their cattle to find water. This broke my heart because clean water is something that every person should have access to.

Another highlight of the week for many participants and myself was beading with Mama Leah. This was special to me because Mama Leah is Robin's Mama and I've wanted to meet her ever since reading "My Maasai Life" last year. We all sat in small groups and Mama Leah taught us how to bead through the leather backing. We made circular patterns, but the Mamas make all sorts of things from bracelets and necklaces to belts and clutches. The work is incredibly beautiful... Mama Leah told us a bit about the women's group she is a part of with Me to We. She explained how they make however many necklaces and other Artisan pieces that they have time for, then Me to We will pay them for it. They also participate in merry-go-rounds where the women each pay a certain amount of "dues" and the Mamas rotate as to who gets the money at the end of the month for their family. It was incredible to see how these community members work together to take care of each other.

If you ask me... Americans could learn a lot from the Maasai community.

Tukopamoja ("We are together")!

Jambo rafikis! Habari yako? Hello friends! How are you?

As you may know, I have just returned from three weeks in the Maasai Mara of Kenya. My co-facilitator, Sally, and I led twenty-nine youth on a trip filled with school-building, community relationships, and leadership skills. Our "typical" day looked like this:

8:00 a.m. - Wake up
8:30 a.m. - Breakfast
9:00 a.m. - Buildsite
12:00 p.m. - Free time
1:00 p.m. - Lunch
2:30 p.m. - Leadership activities and/or games
6:30 p.m. - Dinner
7:30 p.m. - Leadership activities and/or games

Some days we visited other communities and Free The Children projects, which would switch up our daily routine a bit. Some highlights include: visiting Kisaruni and seeing Free The Children projects, conversations with Peter about the Maasai culture, and seeing youth transform over the course of three weeks. Some challenges include: not being as fluent in Swahili as I wanted to be, comments or conversations from people that were hard to comprehend, and not packing warm enough clothes (who would have thought Kenya would be cold?).

These next few entries will be filled with stories, pictures, and statistics from Kenya, specifically the community of Osenetoi. Enjoy :)

Cheers,
Bria

"It's not a question of 'Can we?' but 'Will we?"

I returned this weekend from spending a week with 63 incredible young people, all ready to change the world... I was lucky enough to be a facilitator at Me to We's Take Action Academy! The week was filled with leadership and social justice workshops, incredible guest speakers, and a lot of fun with the kids.

The Academy was held at our Me to We Leadership Centre in Bethany, Ontario. It's ten acres of green forest with a horse farm in the backyard, it's beautiful. When you walk into The Spark Hall, there are break out rooms (all named after a country we work in) and Gratitude Hall (where we eat all our meals). In Gratitude Hall, there are two signs - "Take what you need" and "Eat what you take". After each meal, we weigh our waste and make goals to bring down the amount of food we waste during meals. Our breakout rooms are where we met with our groups and had workshops. At the end of each day, we would go around the circle and say our "Roses (favorite part of the day) and Thorns (worst part of the day)". My favorite was when every kid's rose was Jonathan's speech... it was so incredible to hear 20 kids say he had such a huge impact on their life given what he's done for my life. Another thing we did many nights was "Snaps". We had a "Snaps" wall where kids could write something for each other if they want to whether it's around something nice they did for someone, a way that they really helped out in a workshop, etc... just snaps :)

Three highlights would have to be the Hunger Dinner and Jonathan's speech, Shelley's speech about HIV/AIDs, and the final night.

At the Hunger dinner, we split the kids into three groups - high income, middle income, and lower income. The numbers were based off of actual percentages (so there were only 8 of 63 kids in the upper class) and they were given food rations to go along with their class. The upper class got a four course meal and fine dining service, the middle class had rice and beans, while the lower class had a cup of beans and minimal water. Those of us that were at Academy for the first time didn't know what to expect... At first the kids were being kids and taunting each other, then once the lower class saw us scraping the upper class leftover food into our compost bin they freaked out. All of a sudden the lower class charged at the upper class, grabbing any food and drinks they could. I honestly thought it was going to be bad, I thought we would be making a hospital run, it was scary. This kind of behavior continued until we ended the dinner (it lasted about an hour and a half). We then went outside and had a debrief, as well as one in our breakout groups. Many of the kids were very affected by it... One girl in the upper class was in tears during dinner because she couldn't handle that she was getting so much and her friends were getting nothing. It was intense. Some statistics Jonathan shared with us after:
-There is enough food produced in our world that if we split it evenly among the ~7 billion people in the world... we could feed everyone three times over.
-1/4 of the top 1% of people in the United States own half of the wealth in the US.
-There are 40-50 million hungry people in the United States.
-In the United States, we produce enough food to feed the population TEN times over.

The next day Shelley gave an incredible talk about HIV/AIDs. We learned that HIV is 100% preventable and with a simple $20 a pregnant woman can receive a shot that would prevent HIV from affecting her baby (40% of children with HIV get it from their mother). During her talk, she kept mentioning that a famous quote related to this topic was, "It's not a question of 'can we?' but 'will we?"... and the kids loved that! To sum up Shelley's talk, here are some fascinating facts:
-33 million people affected by HIV/AIDs globally.
-2.7 million people will become affected this year.
-In the year 2000, drug companies made a profit of $100 billion after investing only $21 billion into AIDs research.
-Of the 2 million children living with HIV, 90% are in sub-Saharan Africa.

My final favorite time was the last night... We had our "Action dinner" where all the youth shared their action plans and celebrated. Afterwards, we had a talent show and dance. One of the participants in my group is a very shy girl, and that night she stood in front of her peers to sing Miley Cyrus' "The Climb". When she said how nervous she was, 60+ people stood up cheering "You can do it!!" and encouraged her. She sang through the second chorus, stopped, and was bear hugged by every youth in the room... It was incredible. After that, she informed Jennie and I that she was always the quiet girl in school but she just feels comfortable at Academy and she was so proud of herself. It was magical.

Needless to say... Academy rejuvenated my heart and reminded me why I do my job. Now this week will consist of finishing my prep for Kenya, packing, moving to a new house, and heading to the Massai Mara on Thursday! I am extremely excited for this adventure and to meet 29 new, amazing, young people eager to change the world.

Chat with y'all in August!
Bria

"Dear Me... You are going to Kenya!"

I spent last week in beautiful Bethany Hills, Ontario at our Me to We Leadership Centre for trips training. I was in a building with 40+ incredible, inspiring, and experienced peers and facilitators. I spent three days picking brains, gaining knowledge, and being challenged. The reality has smacked me in the face that in less than two months I will be traveling to a country I have never visited, facilitating with a person I have never met, and be responsible for the lives of 29 young people... Holy moly! I have learned what to do in extreme cases (life or death scenarios), how to deal with withdrawn youth, what to do if my co-facilitator falls ill or we don’t get along, etc.

During this training, I have tried really hard to challenge myself. Instead of just copying notes and participating in modules, I have tried to mentally put myself into the situations. How would I debrief that module? What would I do if I received a lot of push back from a kid? How would I keep calm if a participant is seriously injured or worse? What would I do if I found participants getting... well, touchy? All these questions flew through my head as I realized I couldn’t answer them. I realized I need self reflection. So that’s what I’m going to do. I am giving myself a set amount of time (not yet decided how long or when) which I will use to analyze myself. To pick apart my own brain... What are my strengths and weaknesses as a facilitator? What makes me tick? How do I handle stress? These are just a few of the key things I need to learn about myself, and be comfortable with, before I can facilitate with another person and expect them to be comfortable with me.

So here’s to new adventures and self reflection.

Cheers!
Bria

Oh and PS – HAMZA SURPRISED US ON DAY TWO... HE’S BACK! No big deal or anything :D

Dare To Dream

Last Friday I was given the opportunity to give an outreach speech to a community in Dunnville, Ontario that are part of the Dream program. Dream (designing routes to education and mentorship) is a mentoring organization that focuses on bettering the community through youth by providing them with academic, social, and financial support for secondary education. I was really excited to visit this community because it reminded me a lot of FAM for Change. At FAM, we focus on empowering youth from Brockton High School to make a difference in their own lives, make a difference in their community, and make a difference in the world. We do this by helping them with their school work, participating in campaigns like Halloween for Hunger, and teaching them about various worldly issues. At Dream, they also do these things through global literacy programs and events completely run by the youth.

This speech was a great opportunity for me in different ways. First, I was able to see an existing mentoring organization right here in Ontario, and one similar to FAM. It made me so happy (much like “Strip the Streets” did) to be able to see young people mentoring each other and putting on their own events. Secondly, I was able to speak to my own experiences with mentoring and virtually (via pictures) introduce the community of Dunnville to my mentor, Jonathan, and my mentees, Nichole and Angel. It gave me a great sense of pride to be able to express how important mentorship is and to see the pride in the kids’ faces when I asked, “who here has mentored someone?”

Every day this job presents new challenges. Every day this job presents new goals. Every day presents new dreams. And every day this job presents new feelings of accomplishment... Friday was one of those days.

Cheers!
Bria

The end of the best four years of my life.

Greetings! Long time no update friends... Sorry!

I just recently returned to good ol' TO after spending a great week home with my family and friends in Massachusetts. The main purpose of my visit was to walk in Bridgewater State University's Commencement for the Class of 2011! It truly was a beautiful ceremony, followed by an interesting, fun, and energetic party in my parents backyard. The day was all I thought it would be and more and I could not have felt more grateful for the people present in my life.

Among those people, the most important for my growth at BSU and as a woman, was my family, my mentor, Dr. Jonathan White, and my Social Justice League/FAM/Free The Children peers. If it wasn't for this cohort of people, my years at BSU would not have been nearly as successful or memorable as they were. Without the love, support, dedication, and push of these people, I would never have had the opportunities to...

Mentor two amazing young people, Angel and Nichole.
Educate my fellow peers and community on issues such as homelessness, children's rights, global education.
Help BSU become sweat free through the Workers Rights Consortium.
Meet and introduce an inspiring individual, and now good friend, Michel Chikwanine.
Convince Sodexo and BSU to sell fair trade coffee on campus.
Be an active part in BSU's decision to become a fair trade university.
Help plan and participate in four consecutive Tent Cities.
Received Outstanding Leadership awards or the Who's Who.

My years at BSU have been, by far, the most intense, worthwhile, life-altering years I have yet to face in my young life. The people I met have shaped me to be who I am and have taught me to never doubt myself and always look for ways to improve and enhance what I am doing in life. My friends in the Social Justice League, FAM for Change, and Free The Children taught me that it is indeed young people that change the world every day.

Without my mentor, Dr. Jonathan White, I never would have broken out of my shell and learned about the issues that have now consumed my life. I never would have thought I could write a 10+ page journal entry about Genocide, multiple research papers about inequality, or an Honors Thesis. Without my mentor, I do not believe I would have made it to graduation day as soon as I had... he pushed me and encouraged me through hard times, convinced me of my potential, and never hesitated to say (nicely, of course) "I told ya so" when I would be rewarded with awards at BSU. And finally, without my mentor and friend, I never would have taken a leap of faith like moving to a new country to work for Free The Children. He introduced me to the organization and assured me that I could make a life for myself here... and I have.

So to my loving family and friends... Thank you. It is because of you that I have accomplished so much in such a short time, and to you I owe this honor.

We all smile in the same language.

I just found out I'll be facilitating a Me to We trip to Kenya from July 21 - August 10!

Free The Children is a non-profit. We run campaigns and events, we tell youth all the ways they can change the world, and we do Adopt A Village in seven countries. Adopt A Village is our sustainable development model where we address all the different reasons why kids may not be able to go to school. We build schools, we provide alternative income (so kids don't have to work), we provide clean water (so girls can go to school and they get clean water), and we provide health care so families can get help they need.

Me to We is the social enterprise, they provide better choices for a better world (and 50% of the profits go to FTC). They have style so that we know children aren't making our clothes, they provide artisan work (beading done by Kenyan women) so that we can sell it and give the profit back to their groups, they do leadership seminars and workshops, and finally... they run trips to four of our seven AAV countries so kids can go actually work on FTC projects.

A few weeks ago I interviewed to lead trips. I didn't tell any of my friends because I was nervous I'd be embarrassed if I didn't get accepted. I put my preferences as Kenya and India, and I just received an email asking me to lead a trip in Kenya this summer... I am SO excited!

I'm excited because...
-I've always wanted to travel to Africa
-Kenya is our most popular country for trips and projects so it will be nice to have the experience
-It will be so incredible to see, and work on, Free The Children projects
-I will get to improve my leadership skills, facilitation skills, and speaking skills
-I just really wanted to travel this summer...

I'm so stoked... I feel like this is such a phenomenal opportunity for me. I can't wait to brush up on my facilitation skills and really dig deep into FTC/M2W projects.

Check back for details to come...

"The love of one’s country is a splendid thing. But why should love stop at the border?"
-Pablo Casals

"Murphy's Law: Don't play leapfrog with a unicorn!"

I'm a bit behind in my blogging which simply means there will be a few updates to come. The first? St. Patrick's Day in Toronto!

My roommates and I attend the St. Patty's parade on Yonge Street. While we were there, we had a man filming us saying where we were for his YouTube website (he was a little strange) - RealGuyTV or something like that. The parade lasted an hour and a half and was more interactive than the Southie parade, which surprised me. There were tons of community groups, Irish groups, and legit only one tank to represent the military... The difference in military presence here from the States is crazy, but that's a whole different subject!

There were lots of kids on floats, one of which had my favorite sign - "Murphy's Law: Don't play leapfrog with a unicorn". Also on many floats were live bands playing old Irish songs with step dancers behind them. After the parade we hit up an Irish pub and had some Guinness and my first ever plate of poutine - it was delicious! Overall, it was a lot of fun and we really enjoyed our day!

The following weekend Julie's brother Andrew visited and the three of us went on a Raptors adventure. After Andrew left, Adam came! Our weekend consisted of a Mill Street Brewery tour, drinks at a bar right next to the Air Canada Centre where the Leafs play (Bruins were in town) and the Hockey Hall of Fame! It was really nice to have a friend from home come see my temporary home - my second favorite city, the good ol' TO. He really enjoyed the time here and I was glad he could see what I am doing with my life :)

Keep your eyes peeled for more updates...

A Promise to Keep...

Relief (noun) – Alleviation, ease or deliverance through the removal of pain, distress, oppression, etc.

A week and a half ago, Japan suffered from a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and a 10-metre tsunami. Being able to empathize with others has always been a strong characteristic of mine, and my whole heart goes out to those affected in Japan. However, I can’t help but feel frustrated at the rates of people willing to redirect their focus and funds from impoverished nations to industrialized nations, from poor nations to rich nations, from resource-poor nations to resource-rich nations.

The reality is Japan is a G8 country, with the world’s third largest economy by nominal GDP. It has the economy, means and access to resources to rebuild itself. The government of Japan has expressed that it does not want as much international help as is being offered, with the acceptance of help from fifteen of ninety-nine offering countries. To be blunt, it is not a nation that needs floods of NGOs rushing in to save the day... Not as much as other nations at least.

For hundreds of years, Haiti has been a nation of oppression. Up until the early 1800’s, Haiti (then known as “Saint Domingue”) was a colony of France where thousands of people were taken from Africa and forced into slavery on the island. In 1804, the number of slaves outnumbered the “master class” and the first successful slave revolt in the history of humankind occurred. France was slow to recognize Haiti as an independent nation, and only did so at the cost of 90 million francs. They argued that Haiti owed them this money as a result of property (slaves and land alike) lost during the revolt. This was ultimately the key element in making Haiti the poorest nation in the Western hemisphere because the debt was not able to be paid off until 1947.

Before the earthquake hit in Haiti:
-Only half the population had access to sanitation;
-Only one third of the population had clean drinking water;
-There was a 67% primary school enrollment rate (though this number is thought to be too high);
-and economic stress of putting a child through school often superseded the benefits and many children would not be able to attend.

On January 12, 2010 a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti. I remember being in Belize and having our BSU faculty members let us know that we had a tsunami warning. We were all pretty shocked and concerned, but I don't think many of us understood the reality of the situation. This earthquake left 250,000-300,000 people dead, over 1.5 million people homeless (including an additional 200,000 orphans) and destroyed over 4,000 schools. Since the earthquake, there has been a major cholera outbreak and 80% of the population is living on less than $2 a day, with more than half the population living on less than $1 a day.

Today, there are still over 800,000 Haitians in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps, there is a 50% illiteracy rate, and massive corruption is occurring during the elections.

I am not saying that we should not help Japan; it is up to each individual to decide where they want to help. All I am saying is that we cannot forget about Haiti. Over a year ago we made a promise as a global community to help our brothers and sisters in Haiti... I know I will continue.

Will you?

Words and Deeds

Holy moly it’s been a while! Life has been crazy busy up here in the good ol’ TO.  Work has been a bit busy and is about to get even more crazy…

Almost two weeks ago was Free the Children’s Youth in Action Summit where hundreds of youth voluntarily give up their Saturday to come and learn about social issues. I have heard some people refer to this day as “the heart of the organization” along with our summer Take Action Academy. It’s a day full of workshops, guest speakers, and most importantly, 500 inspiring youth voices. Yesterday’s Summit theme was “Free from” to go along with our “Five Days of Freedom Campaign”. Youth attended workshops throughout the day based on freedom from poverty, freedom from exploitation, freedom from disease, and freedom from thirst. Amber and I had the chance to be MCs for the day and I even introduced our afternoon speaker… my mentor and friend, Dr. Jonathan White!

I can’t even begin to explain how excited I was for the opportunity to introduce Jonathan. As I told the youth in the crowd, I never knew about social issues or my capabilities when I was younger, and for that I am truly jealous of them. However, I did learn about these issues when I entered University, and I slowly learned what I was capable of – all thanks to the guidance of Jonathan. When I got the chance to introduce him, I told the crowd that this was the part of the day I was looking most forward to. I asked everyone who had a mentor or a teacher that inspires them to raise their hand… Almost every hand went up! I was truthfully surprised by this because I didn’t even know what a mentor was in high school, and these kids were from middle school and high school! The day ended with an incredible speech by Jonathan which continued to captivate the kids for the rest of the afternoon.

The week continued with speeches per usual and at one of them I was greeted by 25 middle school kids dressed ridiculously as crowd pumpers… it was awesome! When the weekend finally came, the girls and I could not be more excited because Sunday was… Toronto’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade!! Now, I’ll be fair and say it is not the same as the Southie Parade… but it was much bigger and people weren’t drunk! It took a little over an hour for the whole parade to make its way past us, but it was such a great day! We took the afternoon and grabbed a drink at a local Irish pub and called it a day.

This week is March break (equivalent to our schools’ February vacation) so I don’t have any speeches booked and Adam is coming to visit on Saturday for the weekend. Next week I have six speeches including a charity gala on Saturday! The following two weeks will be hectic with lots of speeches in the Waterloo region so we can do outreach and get them involved. It is going to be really busy but I know by the end it will be worth it considering this region hasn’t really had the chance to be involved and now they will.

I came home on lunch today to a card from my grandmother. In this card was a piece of paper with six poems photocopied to it. There was a note on the bottom that explained these poems were written by my grandfather’s mother for her own column in The Brockton Enterprise called the “Cousin Mary Page”… one was even dated back to the 1930’s. Here’s a taste of one:

"Words and Deeds"

If you think a kind deed to do,

But have not courage to do it,

That cannot help others, or you

If you but only knew it.

If a kind word or helpful thought

Ever comes into your mind,

If you don't do with it what you ought,

And use it, are you kind?

So let's brace up and put to use

Any helpful word or deed

For it was put in our mind to use,

In this old world of need."

-Mrs. Irene R. Wilbur

Until we meet again,

Bria

Weird Canadian habit: They dip their french fries in mayonnaise. 

One homeless is one too many.

This past week was rather laid back with a few speeches.

On Thursday, I was asked to speak at an event in Waterloo on Friday. I was already going to be there because I had a speech in the early afternoon, but it turned out that one of Heather's schools was having an event and wanted a speaker. Heather wasn't comfortable with speaking and asked if I would do it instead. I didn't really know what the event was but I agreed because, well, I might as well, right? I am a speaker after all and I'd already be in Waterloo... So we met up that afternoon so she could fill me in on what the event was. When she went into detail - I geeked out.

Turns out that two schools were inspired by We Day two years ago and wanted to make a difference in regards to the issue of youth facing homelessness. They started an event called "Strip the Streets" where youth rally together, walk from Kitchener to Waterloo chanting things like "hey hey, ho ho, youth homelessness has got to go!", eat from a set up soup kitchen, then sleep the night outside with some workshops for those awake. When I was told about this event, my heart started pounding. I'd seen this event before - but with college students and for three nights longer than this. As you can imagine, I quickly agreed to speak at the event and "pump up the youth" of the rally.

Youth rallying at Strip the Streets

When Heather and I arrived at Kitchener City Hall, there weren't many students there... I was a bit concerned, not sure if many dropped out or if the event was much smaller than they told us. We met with the educator and he said, "this is the calm before the storm... last year it wasn't until 4:30 on the dot when swarms of kids showed up"; and he was right! Suddenly, kids were coming from every corner bundled up in hats, gloves, and jackets, backpacks strapped on, holding signs with varying messages regarding homelessness. At that moment, I felt the excitement of my 20-year-old self on my very first night of the very first Tent City. I found myself wiggling my fingers in front of my face in excitement (anyone that knows me well enough probably just pictured me doing that) and started giggling like a school girl. This is my niche, this is my thing... Homelessness awareness.

Guest after guest took the stage - a big concrete stage outside of City Hall - students, members of Parliament, City officials. They spoke of the influence of youth, they sang songs from the Olympics, and they recited slam poetry regarding homelessness. Then I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see a young girl behind me... She asked me who organized the event and I pointed to the educator in charge. She then said, "I just wanted to say thank you... I'm 17 and I have been sleeping out here for a month and a half... and I really appreciate people doing this to see what it's like". Chills ran up my arms as I tapped the educator on his shoulder to introduce the two. I saw her explaining her story, his hand went over his heart, and he extended a huge hug to this girl.

"One homeless is one too many"

Before I knew it, I was being introduced as the "very special guest from Free the Children" and I was on to give my first impromptu speech. I ran up, grabbed the mic and yelled as loud as I could "Strip the Streets participants, are you readyyyyy?" I heard a few cheers, but none that I felt were loud enough... So I asked again, "I'm sorry, I don't think you heard me... I said... Strip the Streets participants, are you readyyyyy"? And I listened as over 200 passionate high school students cheered their hearts out. I proceeded to tell them that when I was asked to speak at the event, I geeked out (yes, I used my own terminology) and I explained why... I told them how four years ago, a few friends of mine and myself realized there wasn't enough talk on campus about important issues... and there was no action. We started the Social Justice League and our first event would be Tent City - a weeklong event where students would sleep outside, leave behind their personal belongings, eat from a mock soup kitchen, collect donations, host speakers from various homelessness organizations, all while educating the campus and community about the issue of homelessness. When we brought this idea to administration we were told "umm usually clubs have a bake sale for their first event". That didn't stop us though - we held many meetings, made our plans stronger, and with a lot of hard work were able to convince the administration to give us a chance. Now, Tent City went from 5-10 participants a night the first year, to 25 participants a night last year... and each year, the campus looks forward to the event and people constantly want to get involved.

I told these youth this story because I wanted them to see the impact they are having, and can continue to have. Their event has doubled went from 7-8 schools last year to 15 schools involved this year... Incredible! I wanted my story of Tent City to show them that if they could double their schools involved in just one year, then picture what the event will be in four years. After telling these kids how much of an inspiration they are to me, I reminded them that even though this event was incredible, that the real challenge is continuing their action the next day... "Your actions don't stop here, they continue to tomorrow". And they cheered.

Heather and I watched as they marched away, chanting the whole way. I can't even describe the feeling in my heart when I see so many young people wanting to change such an important issue. I thrive off moments like that one, they remind me why I do what I do... and they make me want to do my job that much more, and be that much better. The youth I meet are the youth I wish I was, and the ones I strive to be. Kids may tell me that I'm an inspiration after my speeches, but they'll never realize how much they truly inspire me.

"I couldn't climb the temple,
I just didn't think it was possible... it was huge!"

My challenge for you this week: When someone inspires you... let them know.




Fun fact: This past week I spoke to over 500 youth!

Cheers,
Bria

"And we raise our voices and shout 'Freedom'!"

My CP Team!

Last week, on my birthday to be exact, was Free the Children's first We Day in the Waterloo region! I was on the Crowd Pumpers team, which basically means I got to dress ridiculously, watch the show, and make sure everyone in the crowd was having a great time! Our team went up the night before We Day so we could have a practice/meeting with the CP volunteers. A few of us missed the first couple of minutes because we were taking a staff photo on the We Day stage, but when we came back upstairs, Amber and I burst into the room, and the six staff members of CP did a skit (half improv, half planned) to show what you should and shouldn't do at We Day... it was hilarious! We split the group up into teams and then split the teams up amongst the venue so each group would have sections to cover. The night was pretty successful, but we definitely got a taste at how hectic We Day can be once rehearsals and such got pushed back. The CPs that were picked to dance onstage with Shawn Desman were stoked when they got to rehearse with them, and it was definitely a lot of fun being able to dance his choreography!

The next day at We Day it was even more hectic! For the last two years I have volunteered at We Day in Toronto, which is about three times the size of the Waterloo We Day.. but man oh man, it's totally different from the Staff side! We wore ridiculous (but rather entertaining) headsets so we could communicate with each other and be able to hear. Everyone's outfits the day of were just what we requested: Tight and Bright! We spent the day pumping up the crowd for: Marc & Craig, Shawn Desman, Al Gore, Rev. Jesse Jackson, Michel Chikwanine, Spencer West, Robin Wiszowaty, etc. I must say, my favorite speakers of the day were the Aboriginal speakers that presented on Aboriginal awareness and the importance of our Local Spotlight campaign. It was interesting to hear a girl's perspective of how she was a child soldier in Canada when the Canadian military tried invading their reserve. Al Gore and Jesse Jackson weren't as good as I was expecting them to be, a bit disappointing. Aside from that though, the day was all we could hope for and more!

Nathaniel and I at the CN Tower

Once we returned to Toronto, it was an exciting time because Nathaniel came to visit for the weekend! We decided to celebrate my birthday and Valentine's Day this past weekend since we couldn't be together on either day. I planned a whole adventure in the city with Bachelor style "date cards" to some of Toronto's best spots. We had hot chocolate at Soma, went ice skating at Nathan Philips Square, went to the Eaton Centre, went to the top of the CN Tower (he's been trying to get me up there for two years), and went to a nice Italian dinner. It really was an incredibly fun day filled with love and laughter :) I will be visiting him in April down in Virginia and couldn't be more excited for it!

Overall, my last week or so has been nothing short of exciting and fulfilling! I've had "Happy Birthday" sang to me at least four times by co-workers, shared my birthday with some of my heroes, and was able to spend some quality time with my favorite person. Coming up, I have many speeches each week, the Youth in Action Summit in a week and a half (where I get to see my favorite professor), and Easter weekend in VA to look forward to!

The O-North family

From my family (Toronto family that is) to your's -

In Peace,
Bria

"Distance is not for the fearful, it's for the bold. It's for those willing to spend a lot of time alone in exchange for a little time with the one they love. It's for those who know a good thing when they see it...even if they don't see it nearly enough."

"But you inspire people too, so we love you."

Holy moly it's been a while since I posted! Sorry to all my followers out there (I'm sure there are oh so many of you), it's just been a crazy past few weeks! A lot has been going on, and a lot is going to continue to happen!

I got the chance to shadow my first bureau speech and go out on the road with Scott Hammell. Scott is a Me to We speaker and his speech focuses on the ideas of fear and conquering fears. He opens it with a video of him skydiving blindfolded and handcuffed... oh yeah, I forgot to mention that he's a magician! He then talks about fears (his biggest used to be heights) and how our fears in North America - heights, spiders, the dark - differ drastically from those around the world - malaria, not being able to feed your family, wild animals. He then uses this to discuss our Adopt a Village program. I have had the chance to see a few people speak, but I think that Scott has been my favorite by far. He has an incredible way of captivating kids and really keeping them engaged. After he spoke, their Me to We club came up and all the kids were asking him for his autograph. Then, this girl walks up to me and asks me for my autograph... I giggled and said, "You don't want my autograph, you want Scott's autograph", and she said "But you inspire people too, so we love you", and asked again. Suddenly I had a line of kids waiting for my autograph. It was truly uplifting to think that these kids truly look up to us at Free the Children and Me to We. It reminded me that regardless of any stress I come face to face with, those kids are the reason I am where I am, and that's all that matters.

The following weekend I had my first real Canadian experience... That's right folks, I went curling! My friend, Larissa, was going with some of her friends and invited me to come along, I figured why the heck not, right? Turns out, curling isn't so Canadian. Anyone I've spoken to has never curled in their life and no one really watches it. Canada -1; American stereotypes of Canada - 0. The sport itself is rather difficult (for real) and to be honest, somewhat boring. But overall, I was happy I tried it out because how many Americans can say they've curled? :)

My last two weeks have been jampacked with practicing for We Day (this Thursday!), writing my speech, practicing my speech, delivering my first speech (!), and LOTS of crafting! I had my first speech yesterday and it went really well! The kids loved it, a few came up to me afterwards and told me how great it was, and even the educator told me I am a great storyteller, which made me feel much more confident. My speech is like any other outreach speech where I explain what FTC is, how it started, Craig and Iqbal's stories, and our Adopt a Village program. The unique part of my speech (as with each speaker's speech) is my personal story from Belize... when I told the story about the boy and the canoe, the kids fell silent and they were beyond attentive. Towards the end of my speech I talk about how difficult it can be to keep your peers engaged and I explain how when SJL first started and all the hoops we had to jump through at BSU. It's really nice to sit down and think about all we accomplished, and all that SJL continues to accomplish there.

Finally, the best part of my past few weeks? The crafting :) I have met a few friends up here that also enjoy making all sorts of stuff so I've been making cards galore and other crafts I can't yet post here. They've all come out pretty well and it's nice to have that feeling of home while I'm here. (Sidenote: Julie and I also put together my desk all by ourselves!!) I definitely miss everyone back home, but I am loving it here. The people are great, my job is phenomenal, and the culture is incredible. As for now...


In Peace,
Bria

Interesting Canadian fact: College and University are completely different here. A College is a vocational school you attend after high school, and you receive a diploma in a specific trade (much like our vocational high schools), whereas University is for four-year programs like in the States. 

One week down!

It's already Sunday... where did the week go?! We just finished having 'family dinner' and a house meeting, and now it's about time to get myself together for the upcoming week... But first... my first week at FTC!

Welcome to Free the Children! My name is Bria and I will be your new Outreach Speaker for the Youth Team :) Conveniently, my desk is set up in the "Team America" office because there was no space for me in the Outreach Office. My first week was super hectic, intense, and incredible! Everyone at FTC and M2W has been over the top in making sure I feel comfortable and understand everything that's fluttering around me. I spent the week reading up about the organization (still not done!) and meeting with what felt like a million people (okay it was more like two dozen) to go over different programs within FTC. I still have a few people to meet with, but most of those training meetings are done and over with. The most interesting meeting I sat in on was learning about the We Schools in Action Program (WESAP). What is WESAP you ask? Well I'll be glad to tell you...

Can you pick out my desk?!

WESAP is a group of schools who, after attending We Day, commit to making one local and one global action of social change throughout the school year. They are responsible for reporting back to FTC and keeping us posted on what they are doing, their results, etc. They are the first schools to get chosen to attend We Day and they definitely work their butts off to accomplish their goals they set once they get back to school. Now, what is We Day? Well, I'm glad you asked...

We Day is... well, We Day is a social activists pep rally as Diane Bell once put it. It's a day where thousands of youth come together to show their love and commitment of changing the world. We Day typically happens between Oct and Nov and usually in three cities - last year it was Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. Most of you know, I have volunteered with BSU at the last two We Days in Toronto. Put it this way... last year there were 18,000+ youth at the We Day Toronto... 18,000 youth that want to make a difference in the world! Pretty powerful, eh? :)

So this year, we are also having a We Day in Waterloo - where many MOBilizers (a group of super awesome youth that are called the MOB in FTC and M2W) attend school. This We Day will be taking place on February 17th... yes, my birthday, and will have roughly 5,000 youth in attendance! Biggest birthday party ever! Anyways, I was put on the 'crowd-pumping' team - a team which is responsible of dressing ridiculously, teaching all the youth the We Day dance, and just pumping up the crowd all day long with Lev3l energy! That being said... at We Day Waterloo, Shawn Desman is the opening act. He is a popstar from Toronto and is pretty well known and well liked up here. Today, us crowd pumpers and about 15 chosen from the MOB went to his wife's dance studio where he and his back up dancer, Jungle, taught us the choreography from his music video "Night Like This". In turn, we taught him the We Day dance. When We Day happens, he will open up the show, and when "Night Like This" comes on, we get to go on stage and do his dance with him. Later on in the show, we're hoping he'll help us teach the We Day dance! So yeah, we got dance lessons from a popstar :) it was pretty sweet!

This week, I have a meeting with Louise to begin discussing the difference between telling a story and story telling. After meeting with her and shadowing Amber on her first speech, I will begin writing my speech! I have been thinking all weekend about it, which personal story to use, how to frame it, etc. I think I came up with a story - one from Belize - that I really want to use... I'm going to get some general feedback about it first though. I'm a little nervous about writing the speech because then I have to practice it for Louise and Dawson and I get really nervous speaking in front of my peers. I'm excited for this opportunity though, I think this will really help me in my public speaking skills and hopefully take away that fear :) We shall see what this week holds...

In Peace,
Bria


Odd Canadian fact of the week: No one has any idea what Fluff is! Apparently it's a Massachusetts thing... thankfully my former boss loves me and will be mailing me a package with Fluff in it :) crisis averted!

Welcome to 'O-North'!

Welcome to Toronto, Ontario, Canada!

Greetings from 'O-North' a.k.a. 499 Ontario Street in Toronto, ON! I arrived on Thursday (thank you mother nature for an extra day with my family) and was greeted by my roommate, Brittnei. The house is a big, beautiful, Victorian home with five bedrooms, four washrooms (bathrooms), two kitchens, and a living room. Unfortunately, Brittnei had to leave quickly for a weekend trip to Ohio, so I ventured upstairs to our room in the attic (or the 'loft' as D calls it) to start unpacking. Not too long after I start do I hear voices downstairs, "want to go meet the new roomie?" so I venture down...
"Hello?" "ROOMIE!!"... It was Hamza and Amy. I was greeted with huge hugs and quick chatter. We spoke about the house, what I did at BSU, Free The Children, FAM for Change, etc. Incredible housemates, check!

Friday we had a going away party for Amy. She will be leaving this week to continue her own journey through Kenya, India, and Israel. She is a very strong, motivated, independent woman and I am already sad to see her go... Anyways, party! Many Free the Children and Me to We staff came over, including Michel who I haven't seen since last March! I met a few folks that I'll be on the same team with, both coordinators and another Motivational Speaker, Larissa. She started last week and is in the same boat as me where she will be working the same position, on the same team, and just up and left her family, friends, and boyfriend as well. We bonded for a while and really started chatting about plans to explore the city together! Every person at the party was nothing short of warm and welcoming!

My weekend consisted of errands, unpacking, and girly time with Amy. Today we went to Kensington Market which is a few streets in Chinatown of little coffee shops, independent stores, and a really sweet Rasta store. We got coffee at Moonbean coffee and chatted for a couple hours about mentoring programs (she will be implementing a mentorship program in Kenya for street kids). She picked my brain for a while about how it felt being at the roots of FAM for Change, what works, what doesn't, etc. It was a great conversation with great company and great coffee! We visited a couple shops after, then decided our numb toes deserved the warmth of our house and hopped on the street car!

I finally finished unpacking and putting my room together, which is a huge relief! Tomorrow is my first day of work at Free the Children and I'm really excited, as well as nervous and anxious! A few people have given me tips and pointers on what to expect and it sounds like a super busy day. For now, I'm off to get my things prepared and get a good night's sleep for my first day of my new adventure! Until later...

In Peace,
Bria

"To find the balance you want, this is what you must become. You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it's like you have four legs, instead of two. That way, you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart, instead." 

-Eat Pray Love

New beginnings..

For four years I have dreamt of this day - the day I could leave behind the town and people that have chained me down, the day I could walk away from bad memories and create many great memories, the day that I could be on my own experiencing my own new journey. However, I never expected it would be this hard and that it would weigh on my heart as much as it does.

But it is a new journey, one I have wished for and dreamt of since my first day of Social Inequalities in January 2007 when Dr. Jonathan White introduced Free the Children to our class. I remember thinking, "Wow, a 12 year old boy started that? An organization that really works for children and by children. How incredible!" That sparked the Social Justice League and my ongoing conversations with Jonathan about my future work with Free the Children. But never in a million years did I think it would become a reality - it was always just a big dream. But here I am... sitting in Logan International Airport waiting to board my flight to my new home - Toronto, Ontario. In just four days I will be starting my new career as a Motivational Speaker for Free the Children, and my new journey. No matter how anxious, nervous, and sad I am to be leaving my favorite state, I am beyond excited to begin my career with my dream organization.

So cheers to new beginnings, new journeys, and new experiences. I hope you enjoy my updates on life as much as I enjoy living them.

In Peace,
Bria