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Greatness is Inherited
By Brandon Badillo
My experience with People to People as a
student ambassador is something that is very difficult to put into
words. The emotions that I experienced were probably every emotion
humans can have all crammed into a two week period of time. The people I
met in Japan were kind, curious, and very interested in me and my
lifestyle. I enjoyed my travel, but I didn’t realize just how much this
experience had effected me until I returned home.
Three days after I arrived home in Texas, my father, suddenly suffered a
massive coronary and passed away. In one week’s time, I went from the
happiest time in my life and stepped into my worst nightmare. He was
only forty-one years old.
After the shock of this tragedy I suddenly felt guilty. If he had not
been working so hard to send me on this trip, he wouldn’t have died. We
are not rich, and he had to work a lot of overtime to make the money for
me to go to Japan. I really thought I killed him
At the funeral, some of his co-workers told my mom that my father talked
all time about “his boy going to Japan”. He was so proud of me. He was
giving me a chance to do something he knew he would probably never do.
My dad was a Mexican immigrant. He walked here from Mexico when he was
nineteen years old. He had not clothes, no money and no idea how to
communicate with the people in Texas because he only spoke Spanish. He
took jobs as a dishwasher and busboy and taught himself English. Years
later he met my mom and the rest is history.
When I was in Japan, I realized for the first time what he must have
felt when he came here. I was afraid, but I was excited and wanted to
learn as much as I could. The things I learned weren’t what I expected
out of this experience at all. I thought I would learn about a different
culture and country, but, I learned about life.
In Hiroshima, I was afraid to see where so many lives were destroyed. I
was afraid of how the Japanese people would treat me. I though they
would hate me for coming from the country that dropped hat bomb on so
many innocent people. But, they were happy to see me and thrilled to
meet me. They were as serious about preventing that terrible thing from
ever happening again as we are. They aren’t so different from us at all.
I was surprised that I noticed that we shared a lot of the same ideals
and goals. I was surprised to realize that I had opinions and goals all
my own. It was the first time I think that I realized that even thought
I was only thirteen that I could make a difference.
That trip was also the first time I had ever been away from my family
for more than one night. I had to make my own way and handle my own
problems. I was separated one day from my group on a crowded street,
but, I did what I was taught and was reunited quickly and safely. I did
it all by myself and that had never happened before. I was scared but I
figured out what to do and I stayed calm.
A lot of things happened on that trip, some exciting and some scary.
That was what made it so fun. Going to another country and learning
about others is a big part of the reason People to People was created in
the first place, but what happens to you after you return home from this
experience is where this organization succeeds.
Before my trip, I don’t know how I would have reacted to my father’s
death, but now I know that my dad was an ambassador himself and didn’t
even know it. He wanted me to go to far away lands and meet people and
see the world from a different point of view, much like he did when he
was young. His death was not my fault at all because he wanted these
great things for me and he wouldn’t have had it any other way.
Now, I am more confident. I know I am strong. I made it all the way to
the other side of the world and back. I met wonderful people. I saw
amazing things and learned more about myself than I even knew there was
to know. I am my father’s son, and I know I can do whatever I want to
do. He is with me and he is an example to me.
The world is big and I am free to adventure out into it, fears and all.
I choose to face those fears head on and hold my head up high. I will be
a man someday and I will be a great man because my dad had a dream for
me, and People to People will be there to help me live his dream, one
country at a time. |