It almost hurts – looking at what this life has given me. I have seen so much beauty, I have cried tears of joy; tears of disbelief in how everything has been possible.

Yesterday I grew a year older. My life is not where I perhaps thought it would have been, but it’s my life of choice, freedom, and love. I’ve sat on the steps outside of an old Italian church looking down on Rome during sunset. I cried that day; it’s where I met her. Analisa, from how I remember it. She answered our questions, the questions we never spoke aloud. She gave us hope, and belief in our possibilities. I sat there watching her walk down the steps as tears rolled down my cheeks. We didn’t speak for some time after that; we sat there in reflection.

I’ve listened to stories of young men that have killed others for their country. I watched their eyes, the truth deep within their souls. They showed me what I couldn’t have ever imagined. They were boys and girls, too young to know anything different from the true love they shared for Israel- how beautiful these people are. They gave me love of a stranger.

I’ve been given life – I have traveled.

I love life for the beauty found in every stranger, in the many religions, and the possibility of opportunity.

- Annmarie