Kyre Smith – Reflection Piece

Playing cricket at Rishi Valley

If you are reading this I’m guessing it’s for one of two reasons: one being that you’re looking for experiences that older applicants have gone through to make you even more excited about the trip, or you’re having second thoughts and have been pointed in the direction of my letter to you all for reassurance. To introduce myself, I’d like to start off by saying my name is Kyre Smith, I’m 17, from Chicago, and I’m one of the original applicants to this exciting adventure in the year 2015. If you haven’t already finished getting ready for the trip I can’t express to you enough through this letter just how important patience, perseverance, and hope are both on this trip and leading up to it. At times, you’ll give up like a few people in my group including me; but no worries, because it always worked out in the end. There will be challenges and there will be growth, both in yourself and the group, but in all honesty the reason I applied for the 360+ Leadership Collective is because of the challenges and the change in myself. Let me tell you a story about my chance with 360+ in my own way.

The morning I found out I was selected to be in the group and travel to India, my reaction was less emotional than my mother’s, but I was more than excited. I felt like I had won the lottery for the first time because it was just that exciting for me. From that moment on it was time to prepare. The vaccines were the least part of my worries; it was the passport that held me up. Being rejected twice for my passport was stressful, but that stress made obtaining it all the sweeter. Because of this I was able to communicate with my U. S. Senator (who helped me get my passport in the end) and I gained a new view on perseverance and just how important it was to have that in life. Leaving home was the least of my worries because I knew it would be there when I returned. Meeting the rest of the group—or my soon to be new additions to the family—was the challenge for me. Meeting new people has always been a challenge for me, but soon after we met we left for India and what I expected was nothing like what I saw: plenty of vegetation, crazy fun traffic, and a new horizon waiting to be explored.

I’ve had plenty of amazing experiences in India, but my favorite experiences were the crazy walks where you got to see a small portion of India because when you all walk together you tend to talk more so you don’t think about the walk; thinking helps you enjoy it. Also, the walk let us see wild monkeys and other exciting things leaving me amazed at the many crazy things you could see by just taking a step outside.

Meditating at Gandhi’s home

Interacting with the students at Mahatma Gandhi International School (MGIS) in Ahmedabad is another of my favorites. Talking, playing sports, and dancing with them was the best. I made many friends at that school and I try to keep in touch with them today.

My final favorite experience would have to be Rishi Valley as a whole. At Rishi Valley I lived the life of an adventurer, a student, a cartoon character, a farmer, and a teacher. I climbed a mountain with a friend, walked dark roads with flashlights in a group, went to classes with Rishi Valley students, got hit in the head with a coconut that fell from a tree, helped farmers turn homemade fertilizer, milked a cow, and taught others how to dance.

These experiences changed the way I saw a lot of things. I saw myself in a new fun, outgoing kind of way which is completely different from when I first started this trip. I saw India as this lovely place that I had to go back to, so I could revisit the beautiful parts again and hopefully see more. I saw that other than transportation, people, and shopping, India and the US are similar in so many ways. It’d take too much time to name them all. Being in India and going through what 360+ set up for me has made me into more of a global citizen and more open to the world around me.

As I’ve written before, a challenge for me was meeting my new family, but as time went on I overcame that fear. When I first met them, I was happy to have two friends that went with me, because me and new people are like oil and water. I didn’t want to mix, but I had to. I finally gave up on being a loner and started to interact with the group, and in the end that water and oil became a cake (after adding flour, chocolate, sugar, and eggs). In the future, these experiences becoming part of my 360+ family will empower me to never give up on getting others to see my vision.

An issue I’ve picked up on in India, is how when a nation achevies independence and freedom it brings hope of a changed life. To most people, this isn’t a big issue; however, in all honesty to me it is. Although “independence” brings hope of that change, this hope is weak and will soon enough fade. If you were to think of a poor family in a country where they don’t know the truth of other countries such as America, they would start to believe that by coming to America their lives would all just become better. In reality this change is nothing more than hope. You can’t escape your problems just by obtaining freedom and/or a sense of Independence; that’s only the first step. Becoming independent is a lot like a spark, weak and easy to go out, but with enough work and time it’ll become a flame. In order to truly make your life better you have to work at it with all you have. What I want to do is to bring a light to this truth, and start the sparks that’ll ignite the flame, not just create shallow hope for those who want it by saying” independence and freedom is a step away”, because that’s nothing more than false hope, it’s more like a skip, jump, hope, and maybe a few more miles afterwards. What I want to do is help others start their own journey to success.

Hopefully, my letter to you has made this trip that much more exciting for you or has reassured you if there were doubts, so if you do go on this adventure I want you to do three things: Study, Serve, Share!

Sincerely,

Kyre Smith, 360+ India 2015