Memphis, Tennessee, 2018

To have a love of traveling is one thing, but to seek making connections with people from new places is where I find my joy. I love experiencing new places and absorbing as much as I can from them. We are never meant to stay in one place, and I always seek new grounds to explore and discover.

I spent my spring break in Memphis Tennessee for a service trip. Memphis is such a historically rich area, considering it was the place of Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination. Sadly, it has fallen short of it’s rich culture. Poverty is sweeping through it’s streets, crime is at it’s upmost high, but the people I met there were beautiful. Regardless of it’s current state, they all shared an unconditional love for what Memphis.

One experience I will always carry with me is when we visited an after school program for refugee kids. Memphis is one of the many places refugees come to when they come into America. I worked alongside a girl who was in 12th grade, struggling with her English paper. As I sat with her and taught her simple structure and grammar rules, she explained how her family came to Memphis seeking a new life. We sat and spoke about her old  home, and how she misses what it use to be, and how hopeful she was coming into Memphis. I loved the hour I spent with her hearing her story, making her laugh, and just seeing her smile. I can’t imagine how it is to be her, but I think my short time with her left us both feeling a new sense of compassion. That experience taught me what unconditional love for another human can be truly powerful. I know I’ll never see her again, and I think of her from time to time. I am just happy that our paths crossed for a short while.

Another part of our trip, we went to the National Civil Rights Museum. This was once the Lorraine Motel, the same place where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. We walked through the exhibit and ended our tour walking right between the hotel rooms in which Martin Luther King and his friends had been staying, and they had kept the motel rooms completely intact. To learn and relive his life and the time of the Civil Rights Movement gave Memphis a richer meaning. It’s no longer just a city, or a place on the map, it’s a place where love and freedom is rooted, and continues to grow even today.

This is a photo taken outside the Lorraine Motel, which is now the National Civil Rights Museum.

This was a painting the students and staff of the after school program created, which embodies the refugee students and their roots all under one circle.

Here is a picture of me at Beale Street, a famous street in Memphis.