I am a little pencil in the hand of a writing God who is sending a love letter to the world.

-Mother Teresa

My time at Rising Star has ended and I don’t even know where to begin for this last post. Sitting in the Chicago airport is almost surreal. 5 flights down and only one more to go. I've been working on this post for the past week on and off as me and three other volunteers completed our extra touring in India, but everytime I sit down to write I become absolutely overwhelmed. Even though I am heading home it still feels like I'm leaving another home behind.

How do you summarize 4 weeks that have changed your life for good? How do you explain the feelings and the sounds and the beauty of such a magical place full of incredible, strong people. I hope that my blog has helped you to feel as though you were there with me the whole way, a part of the journey, but at the same time there is absolutely no way to get the entire impact through using simply words. It is colors and feelings and sounds and smells that you don't ever fully understand until you have experienced them and I am so grateful for even having the opportunity to experience them for these 4 short weeks.

It's hard to imagine that girl who left the U.S. just four short weeks ago. I'm obviously the same Kenzie but so many things have changed and happened that I hope will help me to be a better person in the future and for the rest of my life. I have been changed for good, and I hope to be able to keep my experiences close to me and always keep their impact in the back of my mind.

I have sung and danced with people who live with a crippling disease and became blind to the differences. I have washed the feet of people shunned from their own communities and sometimes even families. I have carried bowls and bowls of rocks on my head in order to create a place where marriages can be performed that otherwise would not be possible. I have hugged and read to children who will change the future of an entire country.

I have visited huge forts and palaces. I have visited dirty homes surrounded by trash but filled with the most amazing people I have ever met. I have seen corruption, I have seen beauty. I have cried and I have laughed to many times to count.

I have walked through crowded cities full of people and down quiet empty dirt pathways underneath shining stars. I have learned to love without judging, and how to put others before myself. I have learned the importance of family and work and friendships. I have learned that it isn’t all about me, and no matter how much I try to help other people they always end up teaching and helping me more then I could have ever imagined.

I still can't tell you why certain people are given certain trials, or why some people are born into hardship they did not ask for, however, I can tell you that all of the people I met with hardships were some of the strongest most loving people I've ever met. Sometimes I wonder if the best people are put in hard situations. I wonder if I would be strong enough to handle being shunned or deformed, I am bessed to have grown up in a happy home in a beautiful country, but I wonder how I would be different if I had not.

It's impossible to say "alright okay well thats all the end." because that is the last thing I want to say. The experiences and feelings I've recorded here are simply the beginning. the beginning of a way of life. A life full of service, a lifetime of learning about myself. It is true that you find yourself through losing youself.

So please consider this blog anything but finished, I hope to update it someday soon with new experiences and moments whether they be across the world or across the street!

It's official India has stolen my heart;

and I wouldn't have it any other way.

with great love,

Kenzie

RSO summer 2010

"Change the World"

session 4

"Crossing borders to break down gaps"