Our Departure

"So now that the journey has ended, what has it taught me?... I have been given a chance to see the south for what it really is, a place unlike any other, full of the unique culture all its own, history both triumphant and tragic, and people always smiling and willing to help you out. The Journey has taught me to always fight for something, always fight for what I feel is right and just, and never think that just because I am one person that I am insignificant and do not count... Most of all, I feel I have been blessed enough to share a moment of the lives of so many amazing individuals. So many have given their own lives so that mine can be better, and I owe them and myself to give back to them and to help them with their struggle, which has now become my own." -Kristina Riordan

"My trip down south was a wake up call. I came back feeling a deep connection, to God, to my peers, to history, and to the world around me. I have come back with this amazing determination to walk in the footsteps of those who have indeed made momentous changes. It can be done--we do have the power to make history. But I have also realized that it will require a lot of work to sustain this feeling of empowerment. I know that this is just the beginning of my personal journal of discovery...I can proudly say that my heart is more committed now than it has ever been." -Reem Assil

"I came to one major conclusion about the whole thing--it opened my eyes. I went down to the south with a vision of a place that simply did not exist, and in seven days, had that picture completely obliterated and a whole new one erected in its place... But the greatest thought I had about the whole episode occurred to me after I got home....I wrote these words: 'Unless you can feel a thing, you can never guess its meaning.' It is a quotation that has hung in my history classroom since the beginning of the year, one I always looked at, but never thought much about. But suddenly, it made a lot of sense." -Kate Fiorucci