leavin on a jet plane

I'm not exactly sure where to start with this whole blogging thing, so I guess why is as good of a place as any. I never imagined taking off time during school; I always thought I'd want to go straight through. But last spring I found myself feeling increasingly uncertain--not because I didn't love Brown but because I really had no idea what I wanted with my college experience and felt that I was wasting something precious by just going through the motions. It was a hard decision, but in the end taking a leave of absence this semester feels like the right thing for me.

I'm leaving in two days for Vientiane, Laos (via Tokyo and Bangkok--ahh, the joys of 48+ hrs of travel) where I will be living until Christmastime. I'll be working for an international convention on cluster munitions. The summit, a meeting of about 110 nations who signed a treaty banning the production and use of cluster bombs in 2008, is being held in Laos because this country has the regrettable distinction of being the most bombed in history. From 1964-1973, the United States (in violation of the Geneva Convention and without Congress approval) dropped over 78 million tons of ordnance on Laos, 30% of which failed to detonate during the war and to this day causes hundreds of deaths annually. Hopefully this meeting will be an important step in implementing change to prevent future such tragedies.

And I'm not one of those kids who's all "I'm going to save the world," so this is pretty weird for me. But I think that's what I need right now. Perhaps pouring myself into something that has nothing to do with me will somehow give me direction (and hopefully not malaria). I think it's sometimes hard to see yourself and what kind of role you play until you realize how narrow your human experience truly is. There isn't one "correct" path, but many.

...Just reread that and gagged. I swear future posts will be less "deep."

And, for some comic relief, this is my new fave accessory for the trip:



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWEfmCvu8R8