MyraMark: Big, Big World. Meet Little Ol' Me

Originally posted 26 Oct 2012 18:50 by Myra Mills Tschirhart on a previous blog from living in Grenada.

I often get frustrated by others' unwillingness to believe they can in fact change the world. Because if they write off that they can do it, they probably have little faith that I can. I do not come from wealth, I do not have famous parents (though my dad had VP Dick Chaney's hard drive lurking in his office shortly after he was elected...that's almost famous), I don't have a law degree from Harvard <yet>, but I do believe that somehow, I will make a difference. Yes, it would be wonderful if it was as the first woman President. But if not, as long as I am affecting the masses with positive change, I will call it a win. My hope is that I can achieve this big, lofty fulfillment through legislation writing or lobbying for change in public education, its perceptions and the inclusiveness and importance placed on Fine Arts. And that, though very far off, could happen.

Yesterday, I took part in a lovely excursion to the neighboring Glover Island. And when I say neighboring, I mean almost a stone's throw. It's not really much. More than a comfortable swim, but not big enough to qualify as a separate island. However, I see this beautiful piece of land from campus quite often; I have longed to take the short hop to get to it. When the opportunity came up with the orientation staff, I was super excited! We I arrived at 9am (Grenadian time...), and it took four trips to get our team there. I was in the pioneering group (the first four of us to go), and when we left "the jetty" from the safety and familiarity of campus, I was amazed at how much further away that island was! A relatively unexciting 5 minutes later (thank God--that boat was small and fragile as it was) we were close enough to dock on the island, assuming we could find a place where the waves weren't going to destroy the boat against the rocks. 10 minutes later, when we found that spot, then the real test began. Getting off the boat. Luckily, there are no horror stories to tell from this trip, so I won't build up the anticipation. But what I had always seen as the tiny island of Glover's took me 45+ minutes to circumnavigate (would have probably taken less had I been able to put the camera away!). And you know what, it was bigger than I ever thought possible. I left my comfort zone as one of the brave pioneers, I flung myself from a shabby boat on to the opposite shore full of rocks, and I conquered an island that I had stared at so many times before. For some reason, this little island, overshadowed by much larger little islands, has given me hope.

Little 'ol me, we're gonna be alright. How do I know this? Because every person and every place is special once you truly discover it. Never forget this. Once discovered, the little appearance you may have had carries so much more impact--and suddenly, being little means so much less because being uniquely you is so much grander.

You can often measure a person by the size of his dream. -Robert H. Schuller

The Caribbean