Help Me Learn About "The Troubles" And The Future of Peace!

Colt Kraczek Start Date: Jun 10, 2022 - End Date: Jul 6, 2022
  • Dublin, Ireland
  • Belfast, United Kingdom
  • Derry, Londonderry, United Kingdom

My Travel Story

by: Colt Kraczek Start Date: Jun 10, 2022 - End Date: Jul 6, 2022
In not too long, I'll be leaving for a two-week study abroad trip to Ireland and Northern Ireland to learn about The Troubles, the 30-year conflict that was the culmination of centuries of strife between the Irish and the English. I could use a little help making it happen!

(For the sake of clarity: this trip will happen either way, but I wanted to create an opportunity to ask for my community's support and to feel out its interest in my journeys before attempting to shoulder the expense of this endeavor on my own.)

There have been a lot of experiences that have led to me writing this. Growing up in Mackay, in classes and a town in general so small that any disagreement or attempt at avoidance affected just about everyone, I learned pretty quickly how important it is to seek to understand people—and how much easier it is to find common ground and a way forward when you do. How much better interactions feel when they include a smile, a laugh, a show of care – the kind of actions meant to show people that they matter and are worth acknowledgment and recognition regardless of every moment of their lives before that one.

Over the last few years at Utah State I've had the opportunity to dig more deeply into global events and how they're shaped by culture, information, and history with the guidance of a whole flock of incredible mentors, including those who've been in the room giving necessary details and context when decisions that would be felt around the world were being made. I've started to see the gears of the system, how all of today is built on top of all the yesterdays and the days before, and how much impact even a single person with the right perspective, willingness to collaborate, and drive to create opportunity can have.

I don't feel like I've ever really known what I'm here to do in this life, which probably means that I haven't seen that thing yet. But, I think the eras of my life and the experiences in them have given me a unique kind of clarity and ability to communicate about things that really matter to people. I want to go on this trip to increase my understanding of other cultures, values, and histories, but also to see what we have in common – to get the chance to see others for who they are so that when the time comes that I'm the one making decisions or advising the ones who are, that I can speak a little more true to our collective experience.

My home valley is a quiet and peaceful one, but the world isn't always like that. In all my years I've yet to really see the effects of conflict, to hear firsthand the stories of neighbors who've taken up arms against each other and the ways their communities changed because they did. I think it's important to see how people go about trying to heal the wounds that divide them without erasing their history, and I think this trip and its hand-picked collection of lectures, discussions, and personal accounts is the perfect opportunity to add that knowledge and experience to my wheelhouse.

I don't know what I'm in this life to do exactly, but I can't shake the feeling that this trip is the kind of thing that will make a world of difference when I do figure it out — and I could use your help to make it happen. (And I really appreciate you spending this much time to learn about what I'm up to! ❤️)
  • Dublin, Ireland
  • Belfast, United Kingdom
  • Derry, Londonderry, United Kingdom

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