20150718_12090920150718_15175420150718_17081320150718_15264620150718_12461620150718_144845“The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do”

Hi, I am Emily from School of the Future High School in New York City. New York City is a nice and convenient place to live at, but once I stepped foot in the Dominican Republic to San Juan it was a bit different because everything was not so convenient from what I experienced and learned on the trip. Most people who live around here, don’t have a lot of money, so they have to travel to their destination like school by walking there. Lots of communities here don’t live in the standards we live in back in New York because of the conditions they were set to be in. Many communities don’t have electronic devices or even the basic needs of life like food and taking a warm shower. Many of their surroundings may help to shape their daily life and who they become. For example they may have to sacrifice their education because they have to provide for their family or the amount of money they have.

Today was the second day we did the CAP project and our delegation traveled to Jinova again to finish up the CAP project that we started yesterday, which was building the library. We were divided into four groups again which consisted of the organizers, designers, construction and cleaning crew. I was also the leader for the organizer group, so I basically stayed there the whole time. My group cleaned the books and color coded them by subjects into a system that was easy for the people there to track their books. Then we had to put the books on the shelf and organize them neatly, meanwhile the designer group finished up painting the roof and writing all the letters on the wall. In addition, the construction team finish polishing the benches that were created yesterday. Also, the cleaning team helped to clean up the place and shelves when they were dusty by mopping and sweeping the floor.

In order to be the leader of the day, we had to do a talent at the nightly meeting. In the beginning, I didn’t really know what my talent will be but thanks to one of the Global Glimpse leaders, Lauren, she helped me through it and I got my talent. When I did my talent, everyone was clapping and giving positive feedback which made me proud because I never thought that my Global Glimpse peers would have such a positive reaction to my talent. To me my talent was just something normal that anyone else can do but once again thanks to Lauren and I got the confidence to do it in front of the group. Being the leader of the day, we may face many challenges and one challenge I faced today was the morning wakeup call. I had to get everyone awake and I didn’t do so well on that because not everyone heard my morning call and it delayed our departure a bit but it didn’t affect the schedule or having breakfast. I was proud of hearing all the comments and feedback everyone gave me overall because I know I could have done better. As the day went on, I kept my voice loud because I had to get everyone to hear me because I may not be as tall as my other peers. I learned from being a leader that we always have to be committed, caring, responsible and have courage. Doing this may require me to leave my comfort zone at times when I have too. But overall it was a great day because we finished the project which was building the library. When we were all done I was really proud of all my Global Glimpse peers and myself as well because we only had two days to get this project done. Everyone worked on the project and helped out each group even if they were in a specific group. We all used most of our time wisely and did what was needed to do at the time we needed to. As a whole, I am proud of every single one of my peers because we all dedicated our money and time to do this project.