There are times when you feel you have very little control over how your life is going to pan out.
The fact that I am majoring in City and Regional Planning does not help with dampening my desire to plan out every single second of my college career. I am sure many of you have the same anxiety attacks during the 7:00am pre-enrollment sessions, when you feel as though your whole college career is derailed when you cannot pre-enroll into this one elective course. You know what I mean, you super achievers.
But what I have learned these past two months is that opportunities often fall serendipitously onto your path. You cannot plan for it; they come as fast as they go.
Let me illustrate the constellation of events that led to my summer excursion to the MENA deserts.
Early in February, I was panicking over my summer plans, or lack thereof. It seemed that everyone already had secured a prestigious fellowship or a paid internship at some top-notch company. The pressure and stigma that comes with not being a summer planner, or just a planner in general...I knew I chose the wrong major.
I simply did not know where would be the best places to hone my leadership skills and further my intellectual development. Would it be through a think-tank at Washington? Or an internship with a local non-profit in Vancouver?
As I mulled over my lack of summer prospects, I came across an advertisement for a summer academic program in Israel's Galilee College. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has always been an issue that intrigued me - for both personally and intellectual reasons. How could people harbour so much hatred towards one another? And what role does civil society have in establishing some sort of peace between the disparate groups? Though the program is intended for graduate students, it wouldn't hurt to at least try it out. So I submitted my application.
Two weeks later, I received an email stating that I have been accepted into the program, plus a scholarship for tuition! I couldn't believe my luck. That means I am DEFINITELY going to Israel. Time to break the news to my parents....
My mom and pop, being Chinese/Asian/conservative, were not expecting me to venture off to uh...Israel. Their initial response was shock and disbelief: "What? You are planning to go to Israel?! Can't you go someplace less dangerous?! Don't you know they have a lot of bombs?!"
I was not planning to back out of it easily though. I explained to them how crucial it is to understand the situation as it unfolds on the ground, especially when I am trying to write my Government honors thesis on it! Without talking directly to the people who are involved in the conflict, I argued, how could anybody truly understand what needs to be done for peace and reconciliation at the grassroots level?
Since I will be in Israel from July 7th to August 10th, I figured I should try to find something to do beforehand. I should probably look into internships through AIESEC, since that has been what I have been advertising to students all around me since September of last year. I searched the database, and decided to go visit Cairo. It was a month-long process of emailing and gchatting back and forth between the TN Managers and myself, but I finally secured an internship in Cairo with the Population Council.
So what have I learned? Don't worry about life, because no matter how hard you try to plan for things, the best way to go is to let God decide.
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
- Matthew 6:34
