The World is Getting Smaller

Remember those dreaded 500 word essays?  The kind where someone asked the teacher, “Can we count ‘a’ and ‘the’?”

One third grade homework assignment was an essay on ‘the world is getting smaller.’  I remember being nervous and a little scared because I didn’t understand the topic.  What the heck did ‘the world is getting smaller’ mean to an 8-year-old in the 1950’s?  Was the world shrinking?  Was I supposed to do something to help fix it?

After school I went upstairs, sat at my desk, and kept writing the heading over and over. I suppose I was hoping for inspiration.  There was a window over my desk and one time when I looked up I saw a plane that had just taken off from the Greater Buffalo International Airport.  Suddenly something about the topic clicked and I had things to write about. 

This came to mind because Friday was the last day of work for three young people in our office.  Two summer interns completed their term.  One was headed off to India and then to his home in Dubai.  The other is going to South Korea to be with her family.  The third had been a colleague for as long as I’ve been there.  Bukie was our AmeriCorps VISTA.  Her year of service was finished, and, as much as we’d love to have her stay, she’s getting ready to spend some time in her homeland, Nigeria.  Our third intern will be with us one more week and he just got back from 10 days in Kenya.

My first airplane trip was the day after high school graduation.  My friend Sue and I had jobs at a camp in the Catskills outside of Schenectady.  We got on an American Airlines propeller plane, took off, and in many ways, I never looked back.  Nine years later my first big vacation was to California and included my first jet ride.   

Back in third grade, as I figured out how the world was getting smaller – at least in ways that an 8-year-old could understand – I completed the essay, diligently counted the words, lined up the 2 pages of paper and carefully turned over the top left corner so the pages would stay together.  There is something to be said for having lived in the decades when we were the pilgrims experiencing and helping the world getting smaller.    For so many of today’s youth this small world is at their fingertips.  Travel is just part of their norm and that’s terrific.  Travel builds bridges between cultures, expands one’s horizon, and opens worlds of possibilities.

Looking back, that assignment actually made my world bigger, but today, the topic makes me more nervous on levels that in third grade I didn’t even know existed.

Marilyn