Welcome to my journal. I hope you find it enjoyable to read, however, I must warn you I am not a writer. So read on at your own risk. To be fair this was a helpful tool for me to process and reflect on what I experienced, felt, thought, and learned. Plus it will serve as a way to preserve the memories of the experience while it's fresh. Those that know me well, know that creating memories is my main priority in life so they are priceless to me. So it seemed fitting to attempt to capture this one.

Please read with understanding that this is a reflection of my perspective seen through the eyes of the many moments of time that is my history. It is a journal of feelings and understandings that I arrived at through the small window of time I was fortunate enough to have in India.

Please do not look at these pictures and feel pity, no human wants your pity, they want your understanding. View them with an open heart and from a place of gratitude for the life and oppertiunities you were born with. Do not let your thoughts wonder to, if "they" would do this or that all would be fixed.... Leave those thoughts behind and instead look at what a truly developing country looks like. A world where the government doesn't have the means to build an infrastructure that grants the population all the basic human rights of water, shelter, education, and healthcare. Slums, low class, middle class and all those terms mean something very different in different parts of the world and people in India work hard for every tiny luxury they have. Luxuries like running water, a "western" toilet (although I was told many times squat toilets are more hygienic), the ability to send their children to school and maybe even university, this is middle class. So please try to view the pictures and read the story in the interest of gaining a new perspective of the world and maybe to gain a new appreciation for your place in it.

We are all part of the same but unequal world as part of the human race. On a world level this gap seems like an abyss too deep to bridge, but I'm thankful there are people that are trying. And in our own small worlds we can choose to try supporting each other like a true community does. We can give our time, our skills, whatever we can give so we can fill needs for other humans and develop a bond with people that is rooted in giving because you have the means to give, not because you expect something back.

Remember the nature of our technological advances have created a global connection and opened our small worlds. So we can create our community our "tribe" and it can be anywhere and anyone. If there is one thing I have learned so far in life, it is to challenge every "expected" definition of each societal construct and decide for me what feels right. So for me, my community exists all over the world and all across the US and I thankfully I feel deeply supported and loved.

The first question I get asked about India is always "Weren't you afraid?" Sure there were things to fear, of course.... But the families I stayed with welcomed me and treated me as one of their own. They wanted me to feel safe and make sure I was well taken care of and they accomplished this with there open hearts and smiles.

I realized there was a fear living constantly deep down inside me, but I only felt it when I would imagine myself without the safety net of the family. Or when I knew I would be on my own doing simple tasks like finding a safe taxi, or bus, or even walking down the street alone. Fear I never feel doing the same tasks at home. In India it is very easy to fall into a dangerous situation. People are in survival mode and I represent a life boat to them. Thats not their fault. In addition the patriarchal culture is alive and well and very real, the feeling of intimidation was an eye opening experience. Thankfully it was never dangerous for me and the emotions some of these moments conjured in me simply made me thankful not fearful.

Realize that anything you read here in contrast to your own views, isn't an assault on your beliefs, it is just my own musings which are not meant to cause anger. They are more about me finding how I choose to see and experience the world. I implore everyone to experience as much as they can through travel, their relationships with all kinds of people, conversations, observations, reading, art, music, and everything in between in this short time we have so they can do same.

We see the world with eyes molded by our experiences, so the more experiences we have the clearer the world looks. This will deepen our conversations and allow spirited intellectual debates to happen around philosophy, love, religion, and politics and all the great topics in-between.

So I supposed if you have gotten this far… read on about my travels in India, or just peep the pics :)