As a rather young intern at Meridian International Center I would like to be able to summarize my little trip into the world of exchanging and connecting both people and ideas in 3 words: Hope, gratefulness and fun.
I think now is the time not only for me as for many people in this world to be grateful. It is time for people who are able to live a life so rare to other people that they can only dream of a life where the question is not “Where can I get something to eat so I won’t die of hunger?” but instead “What is it that I want to eat today or invite my friend for?”, it is time for us people, moreover it is our responsibility to make that dream become a reality. So often we do not realize what a privileged life some people are able to live on the cost of others. Someday people realize what big a house or what nice a family they have, but it should not stop there. Gratefulness is not achieved by just saying how grateful you are, but instead expressing this gratefulness by helping other people have the very same privileges as you have. It shall serve as an ignition key to make others have the same opportunities as you have. That is what being grateful should be defined and seen as – where gratefulness meets greatness.
This gives not only us hope. This gives hope to the people that need it to go on. Often even in developed countries children of less educated parents don’t get the same education or don’t have a career as successful as the one from people with better educated parents. The reason for that is that many people cannot see themselves better off than their parents and certainly not as well off as other parents. If we can make them aware that there is no reason that can support their theory, then our troubles here would be over very quickly. This would, indeed, lead to a closing gap between the rich and the poor and make this society work towards a one with both equality and, more importantly, equity.
Last and certainly not least I am here to have a big deal of fun. As in any new place I have the opportunity to not only learn and give back, but also to be a tramp. The incredible benefit of being young and inexperienced is the ignorance one has. As Orson Welles taught us with his production of Citizen Kane there is a great gift that ignorance brings with it. As a young man you don’t think about what your job is and what not or what can be done and what not, rather you ignore these limits and want to do something anyway. This is the very phase where one’s phantasy is bigger and more powerful than one’s memory. A memory is not always good. One can have a bad phantasy, but that is left to one’s choice. So is my choice of what I imagine my internship is going to be left to those 3 reasons: Hope, gratefulness and fun.
