Today marked the first day of classes prior to departure to Italy. Going in, I was uncertain as what to expect, but after the first hour or two I knew I had definitely made the right decision in attending this dialogue. The first activity was instructed by my co-op advisor Rose, which I found to personally help me feel comfortable from the beginning, knowing a familiar face. She instructed us in taking a personality test and find which category we fell into. I fell into the personality category of ISTJ (introversion, sensing, thinking and judging) along with a few others. I learned a lot from this activity and found it to help me understand others better as well. Lastly/ most importantly, we watched a documentary titled “I Am” by, Tom Shadyach. This film took me off guard, it was directed to a question that I had never really heard asked before, “What is wrong with our world and what can we do about it?” Our country has become a race, where every man is running for themselves and the goal is to become the next Bill Gates. However, what people fail to realize is that our purpose in life is not to become rich and successful, but to be there to take care of each other. The point that stood out most to me was the sense of community amongst humans and how the need for others is essential in life. One person can try and stand up for something such as change, but without others responding to their actions/words, nothing can be accomplished. A specific point was addressed proving that money does not buy happiness. Most likely if you were left out in the cold and rain naked, you would be unhappy, but as soon as someone opened up their door to you have gave you clothes and a warm fire to sit next to, you would automatically become happier. Therefore, the smallest things in life can make you just as happy, if not happier than a big house and fancy cars. I walked away from this film wanting to do better, even to the point that as I was leaving Shillman a young women had asked me for a dollar for the train and without hesitation I reached into my wallet and gladly gave her a dollar, because we had a connection, a connection of being human.

“My humanity is bound up in yours, for we can only be human together.”  – Desmond Tutu