Hello, my name is Victor Coronado. I am 17 years old and I was today’s leader of the day. Today’s topic of the day was free day.  Free day is probably one of the best days Global Glimpse has to offer, according to most of the Glimpsers. On free day, we can do anything we want in the city of San Juan De La Maguana with the exception of eating all of the meals at Onaney Gourmet.

There is not much to say about what I did as leader except that I made everyone actually get through a perfect count down. This was only ever done once before–which was on the very first day of the trip, so props to me 😜. For me, it was so crazy being a leader today only because I thought I didn’t have to take charge of everyone so soon, but it has already been 13 days since the trip began. Time is going by so fast.

This trip to the Dominican Republic for me has been such a roller coaster of emotions for myself and the rest of my Global Glimpse family. There have been times when I am happy swimming in the crystal clear ocean without a care in the world. There have been times where I feel bad for the poor animals walking down the sidewalk scavenging for food, while their ribs pop out of their body, or lay on the floor ready to give up as fleas eat them alive. There has even been times when I have broken down crying because of the poor children who remind me of myself, but who are 100000000x worse off.

A few days ago on Global Business and Poverty Day, I met a child by the name of Jayson. Jayson and I met when I was walking on the side walk of a very poor town. He grabbed my wrist, smiled, and showed me his toy that he made with a popped tire, a milk carton, and a stick.

I turned to Nancy and told her to look at how beautiful his eyes were, they are big eyes his left eye green and his right eye blue. We, then found out that he was born with a condition like mine where his eyes are not very strong. While we were sitting down, eating lunch I broke down crying as I watched Jayson try to eat, but keep missing his food. This brought back memories of me trying so hard to hit a baseball off a tee during tee ball, but would take forever to successfully make contact, or tripping on curbs or running into walls. But what made me feel worse was that I was able to do something about my condition and somewhat fix it through surgery, while Jayson was forced to live with the fact that his eyes will never get better and he will never have glasses to even help a little bit.

On this trip, Jayson was such a big influence on how I see the world, because despite all the problems he has–from not having enough drops of water in a day, to not eating, to failing eyes, and even a super unhealthy environment–he has still managed to find joy in his life from making music with sticks, to playing with homemade toys, or even making up games with a baseball that was given to him. Jayson has taught me to not take anything I have for granted and to be thankful for the little things I do have, instead of being selfish and expecting more. I’m now going to move onto some of the amazing people that I have met on this trip and have bonded with in such a short amount of time.

Neeraj: Neeraj is probably one of the closest people to me on this trip. People say we have a bromance, but I say that he is more of a brother to me. He has helped me through a lot on this trip and I am go grateful I get to know him.

Montserrat: is one of the most open-hearted people I know. She wants to know about everyone and does not judge them on anything they have done in their past. She is also very smart and passionate about many things that we are learning about on this trip–especially topics about human rights and social justice.

Jazmine: Jazmine is a very intergetic (intelligent and energetic) girl who loves living life to the fullest. Jazmine is like a female me when it comes to messing around because we both never take anything seriously.

Clara: is a very outspoken person who does not let anyone tell her what to do.

Stephany: Stephany is amazing. She always translates for me, without her, I would be so lost.

Noah: Noah is a super chill and nonjudgemental person, he is also my roommate so shout out to him for always letting me talk to him super late at night when I cannot sleep.

Eduardo: Eduardo always stays on my good side since he just agrees with me even when I am wrong. Also because wherever we go we do a 2-4-1 deal.

Isabel: The first night I met Isabel we almost got kicked out of the program because she thought I was talking smack to her but, then she found out I am cross eyed and I was not even looking at her. Ever since then me and Isabel get closer every day and she now knows Im cross eyed and not looking at her.

There are so many more people I want to talk about, but it’s getting late and I am tired. But before I go, I wanted to share some pictures with you. The pictures you are about to see express the crazy, weird, happy, amazing family we all are together. From me and Neeraj having a mannequin child to our DR youth ambassador Victoria staring us down because of our uncontrollable laughter. Or even me picking my nose, only because everyone decides to only catch me digging for gold. Thank you for reading I hope everyone enjoyed. SHOUT OUT to, Mom, Dad, Grandma, Jesse, Emilio, Sophia, all of family, and Mahdari. Cant wait to go home and see all of you. P.S. I miss Nicki Minajs voice.

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