{"id":48,"date":"2016-10-01T16:48:38","date_gmt":"2016-10-01T16:48:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/?p=48"},"modified":"2016-10-01T16:53:25","modified_gmt":"2016-10-01T16:53:25","slug":"gsbf-2016-my-personal-journey-in-self-discovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/2016\/10\/01\/gsbf-2016-my-personal-journey-in-self-discovery\/","title":{"rendered":"A Personal Journey in Self Discovery, Awareness"},"content":{"rendered":"

When friends ask what it what was like returning home from India, my first response is usually that home seemed much more mundane than I remembered. Even the most the most exciting experiences here pale in comparison to what I experienced in India. Living in the city of Calcutta was a thrilling experience, but trips to rural villages were where the real adventures and most exciting cultural experiences happened.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Riding in the back of a Rickshaw through the Sunderbans<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

On these trips to rural villages, our control of the present situation was always limited. We didn\u2019t speak the language, we didn\u2019t understand the culture, we didn\u2019t have much of an idea where we were, and we didn\u2019t have cell reception. Our fate was in the hands of the ONergy employee accompanying us and the people of the villages we visited. <\/span><\/p>\n

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The people of a small village in southern Odisha<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Control is my heroine, and hence I am what most would call a control freak. Starting with our first field visit, I was forced to give up control. Once I had given this up, I felt a new sense of power and belief in myself that allowed me to approach every new experience fearlessly with an openness and acceptance for the unknown. A beauty began to emerge in the people we met and the cultures that we experienced that made me feel a part of the situation we were in, instead of an out of touch, outside observer.<\/span><\/p>\n

I saw a unique wisdom in the people we met that I hadn\u2019t encountered before. It seemed to be a wisdom of survival. A wisdom marked by the defeat of fear and appreciation for the moment. Living with only a little and struggling to stay afloat every day seemed to cement the values of these people. They seemed grounded, sure of the parts of their life that were most important to them.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Rabin Dranath Mondal<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I felt a connection to one older man we spent some time with who appeared to be the leader of his large family. He had a solemness to him, a patience for those around him, and a gentleness towards his family members and us as outsiders. Rabin Mondal, as he was called, had a unique aura and wisdom about him that I have tried to embody since we met.<\/span><\/p>\n

After our first field visit, I made it my focus to be a perceiver and not a judger. I tried not to make any assumptions and to approach every situation with an open mind. I learned to feel the joys and pains of those around me as my own. I approached new experiences with an open spirit and a gentleness towards others, attempting to convey my respect for them as a fellow human. I did my best to express a gratefulness for their presence. <\/span><\/p>\n

As we met more and more people, I began to realize how little I knew about the world and life in general. I saw problems in my life and the pain caused by these problems in a new light. Witnessing real suffering like children going hungry made me realize how minimal most of the pain I experience is in the scope of it all.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Signing autographs at a school<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Even though the backgrounds of myself and people of rural villages we traveled to were vastly different, I found that our emotions were not so different. In particular, we shared excitement and joy in the midst of a new experience, meeting someone so much different than us. Seeing emotions of love among families and friends made me realize how much I cherished my own family and close friends in my life.<\/span><\/p>\n

All in all, these experiences made me realize how small I am. They helped me to gain a better understanding of my relationship to the world. I was able to identify a source of true joy: connecting with people. Now, I feel like I have a better understanding of what\u2019s really important to me in life.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When friends ask what it what was like returning home from India, my first response is usually that home seemed much more mundane than I remembered. Even the most the most exciting experiences here pale in comparison to what I experienced in India. Living in the city of Calcutta was a thrilling experience, but trips … Continue reading A Personal Journey in Self Discovery, Awareness<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1579,"featured_media":58,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"gutentor_comment":0,"qubely_featured_image_url":{"full":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/files\/2016\/10\/IMG_1157.jpg",3264,2448,false],"landscape":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/files\/2016\/10\/IMG_1157.jpg",1000,750,false],"portraits":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/files\/2016\/10\/IMG_1157.jpg",427,320,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/files\/2016\/10\/IMG_1157-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/files\/2016\/10\/IMG_1157-300x225.jpg",300,225,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/files\/2016\/10\/IMG_1157-768x576.jpg",660,495,true],"large":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/files\/2016\/10\/IMG_1157-1024x768.jpg",660,495,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/files\/2016\/10\/IMG_1157.jpg",1536,1152,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/files\/2016\/10\/IMG_1157.jpg",2048,1536,false],"qubely_landscape":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/files\/2016\/10\/IMG_1157.jpg",1000,750,false],"qubely_portrait":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/files\/2016\/10\/IMG_1157.jpg",427,320,false],"qubely_thumbnail":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/files\/2016\/10\/IMG_1157.jpg",133,100,false],"post-thumbnail":["https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/files\/2016\/10\/IMG_1157-825x510.jpg",825,510,true]},"qubely_author":{"display_name":"Nate Bradford","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/author\/nbradford\/"},"qubely_comment":0,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"When friends ask what it what was like returning home from India, my first response is usually that home seemed much more mundane than I remembered. Even the most the most exciting experiences here pale in comparison to what I experienced in India. Living in the city of Calcutta was a thrilling experience, but trips…","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1579"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48\/revisions\/55"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/nbradford\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}