Pathways to action.

This is my first ever blog post and I feel it appropriate to write about something that is strong and very present in my life currently. I am nearing a major change where I will move not only out my province, but out of my country, and even further where I will find myself out of the continent of North America. As of late August I will be moving to Ecuador where I will stay for approximately 9 months. This change in lifestyle is the result of being a student studying international development. There is only so much one can learn from being lectured to in a classroom, not to mention a classroom in Canada. I need to experience first hand the ideas, theories, and stories that I've learned and make use of this knowledge in a country so different from my own. After spending the first few months studying at a university in Quito, I will be volunteering with an undetermined organization somewhere in the country gaining field experience and conducting research to write a report based on a subject tied to the ideology of the organization. I have considered a few areas of interest for my field placement and narrowed it down to three. 1: sustainable agriculture (coffee, banana, cocoa farms, etc). 2: resource extraction issues and the displacement of indigenous peoples in the Amazon. 3: habitat restoration after mining corporations have cleared land for extraction. This is the component of my year-abroad that intrigues me the most. I am looking forward to the opportunity to learn the fabric of Ecuadorian culture while working with the people toward a common goal of development; social, economic, political, environmental.

 I am a strong believer in the prospect of good. In the world today it seems we struggle to seek out optimism when the people surrounding us are the products as well as the catalysts of tragedy. It is a rare breed, those who see hope and choose to act on it. I would never consider myself naive or idealistic. my perspective on the world, rather, is that we are all creative beings with creative minds. It is how we choose to use our minds that will determine which direction the state of the world will flow. The mind is an immensely powerful tool, and if wielded wrong it can be destructive. I believe this is where the power-hungry are separated from the modest. I have chosen to use my mind productively for good. I do not expect myself to change the world, for that is a goal that is far too loaded. In actuality, I expect of myself that I keep my mind creative, balanced, and open, and that in doing this I can create influence on others. I do expect that I will help, improve, develop, and change what I can whenever I can, while always remaining true to the people that I come across in doing so. It is one thing to want to change the world, but very much another to want it all to be the same. Change comes with recognizing and respecting difference, and this is something that our creative minds have the ability to comprehend, it just needs to produce more influence and take shape through the people who control these minds.