Sunday, 10th of July, 2016 a new shift in my life has started; A journey where I was heading to reunite with a family that I have never met yet. They are my global citizenship family members from all over the world.
I arrived in Busan, Korea after almost 36 hours. It was a very sunny and dry hot day when I left my country, Syria, heading to the other side of the world.
The journey kicked off non-traditionally at Busan University of Foreign Studies. At such conferences, what you expect to see is an old man, white hair and a suit. Our conference in Busan for young people opened with an exciting beatbox music.
Later on, we started a series of warm and welcoming speeches from inspiring people, such as Min Jeong Kim, the Head of Secretariat of the UN’s Secretary-General’s Global Initiative on Education. She pointed out how privileged the 50 young people inside the room were for being given the opportunity over 1.8 billion other young people in the world. Indeed, she was right. However, knowing that we are privileged is not just enough. She urged us to take responsibility of spreading what we learn here in our communities and to those who might not be as lucky as we are.
2 hours later, we headed to what I called the “Global Citizenship Lab.” Our lab was quite simple. Nevertheless, its impact was tremendous. We started with designing a river where we were taught that to pass to the other side, you must collaborate, give and learn.
It was full of energetic people and dynamic big ideas. By looking at these 50 young people’s eyes you can immediately sense the unlimited power they hold within their regular bodies.
50 like-minded and passionate, powerful and impactful youth leaders representing 36 different countries from Asia to Europe, Middle East and Africa to America. The room, obviously, was physically limited but its limitation wasn’t in our minds.
I knew life will not be the same during the next few days and even when I’m back. I pledged a commitment to be a global citizen, to take responsibility of the world and never abandon my duties of making the world a better place for all. In spite of the tense, I really felt that I’m going through an experience that will not only impact myself, as an individual, but will also expand its effect to my community, as a whole.
Things were different in a very interesting and exotic way. A week in Busan taught me that our global citizenship commitment is not a forced responsibility. It is rather a voluntary bond each individual creates to be connected to the planet. We, as young people, are responsible for the future of this globe because it is the only planet the will host our children.
