I did not know it would take me going half way around the world and nearly killing myself to overcome my fears. My sixth grade year had reached the end and so had my years at Homer Pittard Campus School. I had been there for seven years and had grown to know everyone in my grade. Before the graduation we had a brunch. At the end of it the teachers passed out fortune cookies that were made specifically for everyone. I remember the crackling of the cookie and the sound of the paper being pulled out. The fortune inside stated, “You will walk the Great Wall of China.” I did not think much about it at that time. Eventually, everyone got their fortunes and had to go on stage and present. Most of them were comical. For example, one of the fortunes read, “You will work at Starbucks,” but when it was time for me to present, no one laughed. They just nodded their heads like they agreed with the fortune cookie.
Three years later I saw a glimmer of hope for the prophecy to become true. It was a normal day of my ninth grade year. I survived another grueling day of high school and walked out of school with friends. We waited for our parents to pick us up, wishing we were old enough to drive ourselves. Our routine trips my dad and me made to get home, he always stopped at the mailbox and told me to get the mail. We had an old mailbox that would screech at you when you tried to open it. When I finally managed to open it, there was only one envelope reading People to People on the front. The letter was signed to me. I began to tear the seal of the envelope. My eyes widened. In big bold letters it said, “People to People nominates you to go on a trip to China.” I didn’t even bother getting back in the car. I flew down our drive way into the house yelling, “Mom, the prophecy came true!”
Before my mom threw the note away thinking it was a hoax, I looked up People to People. This organization was started by Dwight D Eisenhower in 1956. It allowed students to experience the culture and life of a foreign country. Before I could become a student ambassador, I had to do a lot of community service and assignments. One of our community projects was to build an irrigation trench for flood waters behind someone’s house and work on yards around an under-privileged community. Our final assignment before we were accepted to go was to write a speech on something we find interesting about China. I never liked putting myself out in front of people, so this was very difficult. I passed my speech by the grace of God and was accepted to go to China for twenty-four days with eighteen others from around Tennessee. On the day of the trip, our group found out that we were flying to Cincinnati first to pick up forty other People to People ambassadors. I was in shock, because I barely even knew the people in my own group. I was scared to put myself out there, thinking if I did I would just be rejected. When we arrived at the hotel, and we were split into pairs for the rooms. I was paired with Darrien, who would change my whole life around. That afternoon he invited me to play cards with a group of his friends in the hallway. He pulled a prank on me earlier that day; in retaliation, I took his phone and ran down the hallway. There was a step before you get to the stairs, I found out afterwards. At full speed I hit the step and flew directly into the guardrail next to the steps. A foot to the right I would have fallen down about 26 steps, Darrien counted. A little bit taller I would have gone over the rail. Instead, I had a gash on my head, a bruised shoulder and a few cuts.
That hit to the head made me see this whole trip in a new way. I wasn’t here to have people meet me hoping someone would talk to me, like Darrien did. I was here to meet people, make experiences for myself, not count on others to make them for me. Life literally threw me into a situation that I could have felt bad for myself, be embarrassed and isolate myself, but I didn’t. I laughed it off, and I thank every day for overcoming my fear of being judged I did.
My prophecy did come true; I got to walk to the Great Wall of China-- with its two miles, treacherous stairs, and near vertical paths. But that didn’t really matter to me anymore. I overcame a bigger obstacle than the Great Wall of China would ever be. I overcame the fear of being judged. I stopped being so self-conscious and just began talking to people. There were some that didn’t like me but I didn’t let that affect me. By the end of the trip I made so many friends and keep up with a lot of them to this day.