1. See the Northern Lights

My best friend and I in sixth grade were obsessed with seeing the northern lights. Sometimes you look at the pictures and you can’t believe that these colors light up the night sky like this. I want to be able to experience this natural phenomenon in real life and in person. My family and I have wanted to travel to Alaska for a while so hopefully I would be able to go one day and see the sky lite up with beautiful colors

2. Jump of a cliff

I love in the movie Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2 when they all meet up in Greece and they all jump off this cliff together into the ocean. It looks like it would be so much and exhilarating and I want to try it out. When I went white water rafting in West Virginia I jumped off this big rock into the river, but now I want to take it to the next level and jump Sisterhood of the traveling pants style!

3. Hold/hug a kola bear

This one is kind of stupid but I once read this book called The Lost Girls and it was all about these three best friends who dropped everything, their boyfriends, jobs, everything to travel the world for a year. While they were travelling in Australia they had the opportunity to hold a kola bear. I remember they described the experience as getting a really awesome hug. How awesome? I want to get a hug from a kola bear!!

4. Travel to every continent

My goal is to reach every continent in the world through my travels. I want to reach at least one country on every continent. Every continent offers such a different lifestyle and different environment it would be cool to say that I have been able to witness literally every part of the world.

5. Visit all 50 states

Sometime I focus so much on going outside the country I don’t think about how cool our own country is. I want to visit every state so I can say I have seen all of America. America has so many different places and things to offer I want to explore the country I live in so

 

Pictures cited:

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zdCTk-i_-Qo/0.jpg

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/01753/northern-lights1_1753909i.jpg

http://resources1.news.com.au/images/2009/11/20/1225800/371781-its-not-all-snakes-bindi-irwin-hugs-a-koala-at-a-5546232-jpg.jpg

http://www.buddhanet.info/wbd/images/maps/WBD_world-map.jpg

http://i.infopls.com/images/states_imgmap.gif

 

1. Visit Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Another archaeological ruin. If you can’t tell by now I want to see as many archaeological sites as possible. Angkor Wat is in Cambodia and looks absolutely majestic. The site is one of the most important in all of South-Asia. The site shows what a high level society was once there. The entire archaeological site is very large and some parts are even inhabited. I have read that the specific temple in the picture is the most beautiful at sunset. This is another place my mom and I both want to travel to, so hopefully one day we will get the chance to visit this archaeological site together.

2. Go skiing in the Alps

I love skiing, my family and I have been skiers for as long as I can remember. The Alps are said to be some of the best mountains to ski in the world, so I would really like to try them out. The best part of skiing is when you are about to ski down a really big, steep mountain and your heart is pounding and adrenaline is rushing. Then once you make it down you can’t believe you didn’t fall and you feel so proud. Trying skiing in another country would be a really cool experience.

3. Go on a road trip through U.S.

This has been something I have been wanting to do for a while now. I really want to grab some friends one summer, jump in a car, and drive across the U.S. I don’t know all the places I would want to visit, but we would definitely start on the east coast somewhere and drive across the country, the end stop would be California. I would want to stop at as many National parks as possible. One place I would definitely would want to see is Mount Rushmore. Just to name a few parks I would visit: Sequoia, Arches, Badlands, Mt. Rainier, Bryce Canyon, Joshua Tree, Glacier Park, Yosemite, Yellowstone, Olympic, and Grand Teton. Travelling on the road with some of my best friends would be so much fun and a once in a lifetime adventure.

4. Go on a one (or couple) month long service trip

Ever since I was a kid I have wanted to work on a service project for a month or two in another country. I think I would want to volunteer at an orphanage or maybe teach English in a school. I truly believe this experience would be life changing and so much. I would be able to absorb so much of the culture and I would be able to give back. I don’t know where I would want to travel to but somewhere maybe in Africa or Central and South America. I hope through my service I would actually be able to help someone and make an impact on their life.

5. Live on a sailboat for a while

I absolutely love sailing so I think it would be really cool to live on a sailboat for awhile. I think it would be really awesome to sail either in the Greek Islands or maybe the Caribbean. Being on a sailboat for awhile, I would be able to practice my sailing skills and become more experienced. It would definitely have to be a sailboat because I don’t think motorboats are as much fun. Sailing you actually have to be skilled and know how to read the wind and work the sails. Being able to live on the ocean for that long would be so cool!

pictures cited:

http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02399/Angkor-Wat_2399296b.jpg

http://www.thehideawaysclub.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Skiing.jpg

http://thegospelcoalition.org/blogs/tgc/files/2013/04/Road-Trip.jpg

http://dreamitmakeitshareit.files.wordpress.com/2012/06/dsc_0543.jpg

http://www.liveaboardliving.com/images/sailing.jpg

 

Though many areas of the world feel the impact of lack of clean water and sanitation, the people most effected by this are women. It may seem crazy to say women are most effected by lack of water, when millions of children and people (both male and female) die from diarrheal diseases everyday, however women DO feel the plight of water deprivation the worst.

From a young age, one of the main tasks of many girls in developing countries is fetching water. A woman’s job is to manage the family and provide for them and that means providing water. In many families, the mother hands over the task of water collecting to the daughter. For us this is a confusing concept and a task that has no place in our world, however in hundreds of countries the job is important and must be done. Girls spend on average six hours every day walking to and from water sources just so their family may have water for the day (WaterAid UK). The task is arduous and for many communities, the water source is located many miles away(WaterAid UK). Not only is the trip to water long and time consuming, but it can also be dangerous. Girls are stuck in this cycle of carrying water every day until they have their own daughters to send. These six hours spent every day collecting water, is six hours that these girls are not in school. Since water needs to be collected everyday, this means many girls do not have time to attend school. Without an education, no girl can ever truly have a hope of rising out poverty and making a better life for herself.

Another problem that causes thousands of girls to drop out of school is lack of sanitation. Because there is no sanitation, many girls do not attend school when they are menstruating because the schools lack separate bathrooms, hand washing facilities, and places to dispose of sanitary napkins (WaterAid UK). This causes the girls to fall behind by a substantial amount in their studies because they miss school for an entire week every month. If girls fall behind in school, and eventually drop out, their future will most likely be continued to be lived in poverty. However, if a girl receives even a few years of education, they will most likely have smaller, healthier, better educated families who will be more likely to work their way out of poverty (WaterAid UK).

If thousands are girls are unable to attend school because they either spend all day walking miles in order to collect water or because they are menstruating, then as women they are less likely to have a successful livelihood. If this many women are unable to contribute to their community positively this keeps their community in poverty and therefore the entire country suffers (WaterAid UK).  Women not having the capacity to be educated and make a career for themselves means that a country’s economy is not able to prosper and keeps the entire country  in poverty and continues the cycle of poverty and lack of water and sanitation.

Another problem that lack of water causes for women that I had never thought of is how dangerous it is for many women to use the bathroom. Many places lack private bathrooms which causes women to be too modest or embarrassed to use the bathroom during the day (WaterAid UK). This causes many women to not eat or drink all day until night when they can use the toilet in the cover of night (WaterAid UK). However, many women are attacked at night when going to use the bathroom. Many women are sexually assaulted, raped, and even killed (WaterAid UK). Many women risk getting raped just in order to use the toilet (Gosling). “The violence women can suffer over the simple right to go to the toilet is unacceptable. Simple, sustainable improvements can make a world of difference in supporting women to claim this most basic human right,” said Neeraj Jain, Chief Executive of WaterAid India (Gosling).

Though lack of clean water and sanitation is a huge problem in many countries, water is truly a woman’s problem. It is unbelievably sad how much a woman’s life is effected because she lacks the ability to access water, something we take advantage of every day. That women lose out on education and are even put in danger in order to use the toilet is horrendous. If more women were better able to access water and sanitation, many countries, I believe, would be able to pull themselves out of poverty and their economies would grow because of the introduction of women into careers.

“You can tell the condition of a nation by looking at the status of its women.” Jawaharal Nehru.

Here is a great video that outlines the problems women face everyday because of the lack of clean water and also shows some things the organization WaterAid UK is doing in order to find solutions.

video: http://www.wateraid.org/uk/what-we-do/the-crisis/women#/education

Sources:

Gosling, Louisa. “WaterAid – Risking Rape to Reach a Toilet in India’s Slums.” WaterAid – News and Media. WaterAid UK-Water Charity, n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2014. <http://www.wateraid.org/news/news/risking-rape-to-reach-a-toilet-in-india-slums>.

“WaterAid UK- The Crisis – Women.” WaterAid UK -The Crisis – Women. WaterAid UK, n.d. Web. 06 Mar. 2014. <http://www.wateraid.org/uk/what-we-do/the-crisis/women#/u8P636QQ8kE>.

Picture citations:

http://calgarykb.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/water12.jpg

http://axisoflogic.com/artman/uploads/2/africa_collecting_water1.jpg

http://www.stopcorporateabuse.org/sites/default/files/styles/campaign_page_image/public/campaigns/images/test2.jpg?itok=WMCLxwmL

For “This I believe”, one of my ideas is my belief that the unknown is beautiful. When I was a kid I wasn’t really afraid of the normal things like monsters, I was always afraid of the unknown, the things I couldn’t see or know. For a long time this was my biggest fear, but once I went SCUBA diving I finally got over this fear. It was like an awakening, I realized that it was okay to not know what was going to happen or what came next. That the unknown is unexpected, and the unexpected moments in life, the moments we never see coming are the most beautiful and sometimes most meaningful. A second belief of mine is being well read. My whole life I have been a reader. When I was young I was the kid who brought a book out to recess, read in the car, and any other free moment. I feel that my background in reading has really helped me in life and I think everyone should have a good foundation in reading. Both of these are very personal to me and be interesting to think about.

 

For my civic issue blog, one idea is to write about lack of clean water in other countries. In America, we take for granted clean water, but in other countries people have to walk miles just to get water and it’s not even clean. Water is the most important resource, and though we don’t think about it very often, we really ought to. Another idea is about America’s education system versus other countries. How does our education compare to other countries? Are we even on the same level? and what is our government trying to do to fix this issue?

 

For my passion blog I want to stick with a travel idea. I think I want to do a bucket list blog, different places to go and things to do. I want to be able to share all the different places I hope to go and things I want to do. I might even do a bucket list for college students or just a regular bucket list. Another idea is to blog about archaeology. I am an archaeology major so I find archaeology fascinating. I could write about archaeological sites I want to go to and maybe research some new archaeological finds.