It's not enough to have children and take them
around our families. It's not enough to teach them to love their communities.
It's not enough to teach them about their ethnicity...If we want to make
strides to end hate in our countries and around our borders, our children
need to know and understand the world and the other people in it.
I have two beautiful sons that I've always
believed were only loaned to me. I've never seen having children as a means to
control a life or to even mold a person into what I wanted him to become.
Rather, I have always believed that it was and still is my responsibility to
expose them to people and chances I did not see during my childhood.
Last year, my
eldest son, age 19, was here in the Gulf with me for more than a month and he
told me that it was one of the most impactful experiences of his life. While he
was in the emirates, I gave him a makeshift tour of the beauty and wonder...the
magnificence of the United Arab Emirates, my new home. Yesterday, my youngest
son began his journey from Durham, NC to Dallas, TX and then to Amsterdam.
Shortly, he will arrive in Dubai and have an opportunity of a lifetime to see
and spend time in one of the fastest growing countries in the Gulf
region.
His potential
travels had both families (both mine and his father's) up in arms. Why would
you want to send your seven year old to the Middle East? What if something
bad happens over there? What if he never comes back home? His father and I went
back and forth as he vacillated between allowing him to travel and keeping him
stateside. The one thing I could say to plead with him is that traveling abroad
would broaden his scope....coming to the Gulf and meeting scores of new
children from all over the world would help him better understand the value of
one's place in a global society. After much cajoling,
he finally agreed. Now that the initial anxiety of allowing him to leave the
country has subsided, I hear him saying how happy he is that he made the
choice.
In the end, as
parents, we have a short amount of time to make a strong impact on our
children. It is my hope that something in my story either calms your fears or
inspires you to begin looking at opportunities abroad for your children. If you
have any questions concerning programs abroad for you, your children or both
please connect with me and/or send me a message. Remember, my primary purpose
for being on LinkedIn is to leave a legacy (and inspire others to do the same).
It's not enough for my children to travel the world; I want your children to do
it too.
#HappyTravels
