My interest in international affairs stems from an emotional response. My interest ebbed from my reading of the Lisa Shannon’s memoir A Thousand Sisters. In it she travels to and from the Democratic Republic of Congo doing non-profit work with Women for Women International. Her description of the DRC, Rwanda, and Tanzania enraptured me; the vast forest sweeping landscape; the colossal geopolitical corruption; the expansive plight of the people. Shannon uses her gripping interactions with women who have been beaten, raped, and mutilated to captivate her audience with the quandary the citizens of eastern DRC have faced since the Rwandan Genocide; a colossal of crises that the international theater of fighting world superpowers thought wasn’t …show more content…
After reading Shannon’s memoir that all changed. They say that curiosity killed the cat, well, this cat is kicking. After learning an enlightening amount about the Democratic Republic of Congo, my interests, like most people, moved to the Middle East. Though, I am still highly active in supporting those who have, and continue to be, affected by the Kivu Conflict in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. I found myself being enamored by the highly complicated ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I was especially curious about potentially solutions to the conflict. As a hobby I have internal discussions on the matter; I have come to the conclusion that a one-state solution could potentially be extremely beneficial for both sides, as well as the belief that the bulk of change needs to come from the bottom up, teaching children tolerance and mutually beneficial public works projects in which both Israelis and Palestinians come together to complete, were just a few of my ideas. I like to believe that international affairs are not just about learning about past human mistakes, but about implementing our ideas, as future leaders, to create a world that has a little less animosity in