Airport Anxieties *this was the first post from my first blog that I am now posting here*

I am writing this post as I am sitting at my gate, getting ready to board the plane to Dakar. I look around me and don't see any any students who could be going on my program. Most of the crowd are locals who are going back home, some with beautiful clothing that makes me excited to see the fashion in Sénégal. I am also overhearing some conversations in French and Wolof (the two national languages of Sénégal), which is already alerting my inner self of the fact that I am entering a space where I am the minority. This is very daunting and unsettling because for all my life I have managed to fit in, solely because of the color of my skin. Now, I am entering a country where I neither speak nor look like the people who I will be surrounded by. It's at this moment that I'm asking myself is this whole thing worth it. Is it worth is to travel halfway across the world to a country which I know little to nothing about, just to make myself a little uncomfortable? Could there not have been any other ways to break my bubble and experience something new?

Honestly, for me, there truly isn't any other way. I need to know what it's like to feel completely vulnerable and force myself to adapt. I have to be willing to adapt to someone else's culture and way of life, and to learn someone else's language to be able to communicate with them. For too long I've been used to people adapting to my culture and my language to relate to me. I have gotten too comfortable. It's about time I learn how to be uncomfortable and experience something completely different from what I've ever known. Life's too short to just be comfortable.

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/8b7ecb_075bab40925e4a1aab4b644cb7e66317/1080p/mp4/file.mp4