Traveling The World Saved My Life: Memoir by Christopher Wells

Traveling the World Saved My Life
Memoir by Christopher Wells
Memoir of a Nomadic Teacher

A strange way to start a memoire, but I have never written one
before so I do not really know how to begin. The most influential moment
of my life would be when I went to Nepal for five months and worked as a
volunteer with a non-government organization. While there, I worked in an
orphanage and looked after 27 of the greatest children I have ever had the
pleasure of looking after. The second most influential moment of my life
was when I sold everything I owned and went to Europe for eighteen
months. These two experiences are completely opposing with one another,
and yet they both helped me in such profound ways to grow and develop.
They have helped me to mature as a person and will always be a large
part of who I am as an educator.
When I was nineteen I decided to go and work with an NGO

overseas. Unfortunately, I had no idea where to start, or even where I
wanted to go. My friend who was in school to become a teacher introduced
me to an NGO that had multiple projects all around the world, but I still
could not decide, so I did what any nineteen year old without a clue would
do, I spun a globe. That chance decision sent me to Nepal where I worked
in an orphanage looking after and teaching children, teaching English as a
second language to adults, and worked to build the children I looked after
a new home. It was an amazing experience to go and see what true
hardship really is, but at the same time I was able to realize how much I
had taken for granted in my own life. The main school in town, which
looked after both the town and the surrounding villages, provided the
access to education. I would help the children who ranged from the ages of
six to fourteen and had all come from different walks of life in the
orphanage with their homework every day. I also taught English to adults
that lived in town to improve their own English and tried to improve their
understanding of grammar as best I could without receiving any formal
training myself. Although this amounted to very little, to some it meant a
great deal. My days started at five in the morning to get the children ready
for school and then would go to help with the construction of a new
orphanage until they finished and I had to go back to looking after them. It
was exhausting work and demanded more than I had ever expected, yet I
never slept in, or complained about the work. I developed an appreciation
for helping others, and experienced how it was able to be such a driving
force for myself. I also learned how much I had taken my own education
for granted, as a student in high school I was full of attitude and wanted
nothing to do with being there. However, when I went to Nepal I saw just
how much both the children and adults valued education, and made it
such a focus within their lives. Education revolved around trying to build
their understanding of English and the children worked so hard to make
sure their grades were high. The older boys worked hard to succeed on
their tests in order to get scholarships and grants in order to go to
university. When I was helping them with homework and to study I had no
desire to go to university, but I still tried to help them as much as possible

because I saw how much potential they had. When I was younger I thought
university was a place that I would never end up, and school was a place
that I avoided often. However, they saw school as an escape from their
lives and as an opportunity for their future. Their viewpoint of school being
a place where you will not be judged but rather you were considered an
equal among your peers and have the ability to succeed is something that
caused me to change my view of school.
Though I learned to respect education and schools more as a place

for opportunity in Nepal, I did not decide to go back to school for a few
years. It was after I quit my job and left everything behind to go to Europe
for eighteen months that helped me decide to go back to post-secondary. I
worked for an oil and gas company in Calgary and eventually worked my
way up into an office job that paid me a ridiculous salary for what I saw as
very little work. However, there was one major drawback, I loathed that
job. It felt like I sold my soul to make money, so I left and went to Europe
where I ended up backpacking all across the continent. The time I spent
away was not productive
like Nepal, I spent my time
as a tourist, and while the
majority would argue that
Europe is a place of history
and culture, I would state that eventually it loses it shine. You can only see
so many cathedrals and museums, which is why I ended up working odd
jobs for under the table cash. When I left for this trip, I believed that all I
wanted to do with my life was travel the world and experience it, but while
I was there I learned that sometimes what truly matters is what is at
home. I met a teacher who had spent the last twenty-five years working
overseas in different countries and no longer had any contacts at home.
This realization was something that led me to think about going home and
continue my education. While it did not have the same effect on me that
Nepal did, I was on my own for the entire time I was there and had grown
so distant from friends and family I rarely talked to them anymore. I met
people from different backgrounds and cultures, worked jobs all over the
continent, saw amazing sights, and experienced things that I could not
even begin to go into detail about. This trip helped me to learn more about
myself as a person, and through my experiences I was able to develop a
better awareness and understanding of what I wanted with my life. I was
able to reflect on my life, and in doing so, I decided that I wanted to
become a teacher. So while it did not create the fundamental shift in my
ideologies like Nepal did, it provided me with a variety of experiences that
helped me to become reflexive of my own life and what I wanted to do
with it.
So what does my title mean when I saw it saved my life? I described
two trips that I have gone on, and how they helped me to mature as an
individual. However, I have spent most of my life traveling around the

world. I was a problematic child for most of my time spent in school and
while I acted out, I developed a social standing that teachers would
acknowledge and this led to me being dismissed regularly. However, by
traveling I was able to see what I had missed when I was younger. That
education is an opportunity for students to grow and expand their own
world and while this may be a small thing to some, I see it is an amazing
prospect as a teacher. It is the teachers who either gave me the
opportunity to succeed, or removed it, that I remember. My goal is to
provide students with these opportunities to become something more.
While this memoir describes my large life altering events and how they
changed my perspective, it was the small every day things that in fact
changed them. The smiles you bring to an orphan when they learn
something new or internal happiness when you are reflexive of your life
and what you need. One of my major beliefs within education is that
everyone has their own history, and we should respect that. My memoir
focuses on how I learned that taking the time to understand both yourself
and others can lead to mutual growth, and that we should aim to foster
the potential in every student by treating them with respect.
Writing Process
I found that I struggled immensely with this writing assignment since
one of the things that I dislike the most, is talking about myself and the
trips that I have gone on. I chose it over the literary story since that one
confused me more than anything else and I had no idea how to even start
it. I struggled choosing events that were significant to me and would have
to describe in detail because I did not want to provide personal
information. I prefer not to go into personal details of my life for
assignments like this, but I didnt understand how to do the literary story
so this was like pulling teeth.
The in class peer-review was a disappointment for me since the
student I chose to pair up with did not give me any advice even though I
knew my rough paper needed it. I asked if there were any spaces where I
should expand and was met with indifference towards editing the paper
and only a summative, its good. So I went and had to find other
classmates to edit my paper outside of the class time provided, which in
the end proved to be very helpful.

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Traveling The World Saved My Life: Memoir by Christopher Wells

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Traveling the World Saved My Life

Memoir by Christopher Wells

Memoir of a Nomadic Teacher

When I was nineteen I decided to go and work with an NGO

desire to go to university, but I still tried to help them as much as possible

Though I learned to respect education and schools more as a place

individual. However, I have spent most of my life traveling around the

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