“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”
Every day, as the first rays of light bathed the rooftops of Islamabad, the imam's call would shatter the silence of dawn.
And I would awaken.
I remember lying in bed, a young child transplanted from Arlington, Virginia, to a foreign land, haunted by the beauty of that voice. In those early years, I learned to experience the unfamiliar not with fear but with wonder.
My family would go on to live in six more countries after Pakistan. And with each move, my world grew richer for it. I was immersed in new cultures and saw the world through the eyes of others. And I came to experience this world not as “mine and theirs,” but “ours.”
Of all the things I hope to achieve in this life, I hope for this: that I give my children the opportunities I had growing up to experience the richness of the world beyond their immediate boundaries. That I teach them to embrace difference in the way my parents taught me. That they grow to be kind, empathetic, and curious. That they regard the challenges of this world not as “mine and theirs,” but “ours.”
I hope they experience the call to awaken in their own way.
And they do.
— Ryan Fennerty