"toothbrush" person

Today we had a really good Global Studies class, which made me think a lot about what I’ve been learning this semester abroad. We talked about how it’s not all about seeing the sites in all the countries that we go to, but rather how we interact with the people that we meet and getting sucked into their culture.  A panel of students talked about very personal moments that they’ve had with some of the people that they’ve met along this journey of ours.  They talked about how the people that they met moved them in some way and left footprints forever on their hearts.  We were all able at the end of the class to reflect on our own experiences and interactions with the people that we’ve met as well. I wrote about Minnu, the 13 year old Indian girl who I met in the SOS Children’s Village one of the last days I was in Cochin.  She completely touched my heart and I’m never going to forget her, along with others, such as Lisa from the small village in Yangshuo, China or the two little girls I played with in the slums of Chennai. These people, that have touched our hearts, our teacher referred to as “toothbrush” people, the ones who we should take a second to remember every day while doing a simple task, such as brushing our teeth!! We wrote our addresses on our folded up reflections and our teacher said that 1 year from now he’s going to send them to that address… which is going to be really wonderful to receive next spring and be able to reminisce... In class we discussed how sometimes a language barrier brings us even closer to those who we can’t completely communicate fully with, because sometimes you don’t need words to express how you really feel in a specific moment.  Sometimes the company of others is the most powerful thing and what forms the special memories and bonds that we hold dear to our hearts. These are the kinds of moments that we’ll never forget. And this is what I’ve learned from this entire experience and why I’ve taken the risk to reach out to others, meet the locals and become a part of someone else’s culture, even if it’s just for a short while... just knowing that I can be the one to put a smile on a child’s face or a stranger passerby, then that’s all I can really ask for and that’s all that really matters at the end of the day, to me.