So I stumbled across an article on the Chapman Web site (written by my friend Sarah Van Zanten no less.. woo hoo, nice work VZ!) about a guy named Ben Kaplan. I followed the link to his Web site and realized he looked very familiar. Now I remember meeting him through my friend Ariel actually (a year or so ago? I can't remember)! Turns out, in 2009 he took a red eye after the ceremony on the night of graduation straight to Israel and since then has been working his way around the world (Nicaragua, Thailand, India etc.). Living for three months at a time in a certain country, he is trying to spend five years abroad and end his travels with more money than he started by working and remotely conducting on-line marketing services for companies back in the U.S.
Check out:
http://www.whereisbenkaplan.com/
Just thought I would share with you this amazing site from a fellow Chapman student - exciting and inspiring. Haha President Doti must really be proud of this "global citizen." I wish more Americans would follow his lead. New Zealanders have already figured that one out...
Fun fact: Figures for the total NZ population (a bit over 4 million) are continually skewed because at any one time more than half a million Kiwis are overseas.
The travel bug is infection and unavoidable. It is so easy to just stay put, fall into a routine, close yourself off to possibilities and mobility. But how can we grow and change if everything around us stays the same? Learning more about others opens personal windows - through understanding the world, we can learn more about ourselves and find somewhere in that world where we can be happy and make a difference.
This reminds me of an excellent quote I heard before I left:
"Good judgement comes from experience. Experience comes from bad judgement."
I like that quote! :)
ReplyDeleteI liked it and will pass it on to others.
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