I’ve always wanted to be a hero. When I was a teenager, I was a lifeguard. I used to have fantasies of saving lives…but no one ever needed saving on my watch. I used to have dreams of going into burning buildings and rescuing children. But I never did. Suddenly, I knew I had to do something. I was seventy one. It wasn’t too late. But it had to be a fit.
Before the month was over I decided to work at changing the mentality in the U.S. I would create a movement that would encourage our kids to take a gap year, between high school and the next phase of their lives. Let them discover the world. Let them learn that we are indeed all the same…the tribal people in New Guinea and the tango dancers in Argentina, the farmers in Mexico and the royalty in Bali, the sheep herders in New Zealand and the goat herders in Tanzania. These were things that our population needed to know.
In my travels I had met tons of young people from England, New Zealand, Australia, Israel, and many other countries, who were maturing themselves while discovering the world. They were doing their Gap Year, Bridge Year, Overseas Experience. It’s a concept that has never taken root in the U. S. We’re a country that doesn’t trust foreigners, a country that is geographically isolated. Ignorance breeds intolerance. If we are going to be leaders in the world, our population has to cross borders, share meals, laugh, work, and play in other countries. And share and learn about other ways of being. Let’ Get Global is determined to open up the world to our high sch0ol graduates. We will have a very different country when the majority of our population has experienced an international “GapYear.”
That’s when Let’s Get Global was born. Except I called it Global Learning.
The idea was born in December. I left for Spain at the end of January on a planned mini-adventure.
Birthing a movement was never part of my plan. I was a happy nomad, following my whims all over the world.