An excerpt from my college journal about my first trip to New York City in 2002. Reading back - from this entry to my blog post just a few days ago - I see how my journey into the mosaic of the world has transformed and shaped my life. Then, I was just beginning to be "enlightened" by the diversity of a great city and a bit unsure of how to take steps out of my own story in Spokane, Washington and into a world full of stories different from my own. Now, this desire to see the diversity of life has taken me from Spokane to Nashville; to a dozen different communities in Africa and into thousands of different stories. Just as I suspected in my journal almost ten years ago, these stories change me everyday.