Leaving is not a “goodbye;” instead, it's a “see you later,” as I know that I'll have to come back and explore more of Nepal. Thank you, Nepal, for the incredible sunrises and the peacefulness in every place I visited. Thank you, too, for welcoming me with a smile and a plate full of delicious food everywhere I went.
An important thing I learned from Nepalis is how vulnerable they are to climate change. Although people are adapting, there is uncertainty in their future. When I first arrived in September, at the end of monsoon season, the rains continued for much longer. In Illam, a region that is famous for tea, farmers told me they can no longer plan when to harvest because climate change has made everything unpredictable. In Larjung, a rural mountain village, farmers fear that the rapidly melting snow and glaciers will no longer be the source of water for their crops. These encounters, along with my own personal experience of pollution in Kathmandu, have increased my commitment to living more sustainably and working for the preservation of our environment.
I hope some of these lessons affected you, too, as you followed my travels. You are years away from studying abroad, but that doesn't mean you can't enjoy its main benefit: meeting people of different backgrounds. We are lucky to live in a country full of diversity. When you meet someone that looks different from you or speaks a different language, smile at them, and make a connection. As you meet more people and travel more, you will come to see that we are really not so different, not at the core. The differences that we do have are on the surface: the clothes we wear, the way we look, the language we speak, the holidays we celebrate.
