Reflection from the founder of Youth Empowerment Trips - Eeman Ouyoun. My summer vacation officially ended a couple of weeks ago with the immediate start of my classes. I wanted to prepare a reflection of the experiences I had not only because the incredible nature of the trip obligates that I share it with others but as a keepsake for myself to relive and reflect again and again on the beautiful blessing of the trip. I honestly dont know how to encompass a trip like that into a brief statement or so and realistically I wont be able to gather all my thoughts into one coherent message. But let me give it a shot. In total I traveled to 7 countries within the span of 2 months: the Philippines, Brunei, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, and Indonesia. Each and every place deeply impacted me. Despite the fact I travelled across thousands of miles all over Southeast Asia, this summer was a very profound internal journey for me. In general, I am a very internal person but the difference this summer made for me is that not only did I have countless opportunities to reflect on myself: my goals, my strengths, and weaknesses. I learned about the beauty in genuinely connecting with other people and looking past differences. Normally in your hometown, you can typically click with people because you share the same background, school, culture, religion, or at the very least language. What traveling did for me, especially in the case where I had little to no similarities with the people I met, it forced me to reach deep within myself and connect with other people on a very intimate and human level. It forced me to connect out of compassion, hospitality, gratefulness, and sincere love to another person because of the value and depth they added to my life. It was out of the incredible and infinite mercy of Allah that I got to connect and talk to all the people that I did. Sometimes, we forget that the people we run into on a daily basis did not come across us by accident. You were intended to meet that person but it is up to us to acknowledge the blessing of that encounter and cherish it because you sincerely do not know when you will see that person ever again. That’s what my travels did for me. It made me appreciate the blessing in interacting and creating powerful bonds with people from different countries, cultures, and languages than me.
Posted on: Mon, 17 Mar 2014 09:11:05 +0000
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