In exactly one week from today, I will be traveling to Lebanon to teach and work with a program called LEAP Lebanon. For the summer, I will be living and teaching in a Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut. The aim and mission of this program aligns very close to my own teaching philosophy in that each child has a right to a quality education no matter where they live. A belief in education and that education empowers, enlightens and enables children.

Many people have asked me why the Middle East? Well friends, it has been quite a journey.

A journey that started out 2 years ago, June of 2010 to be exact...

I had just finished my first year at NYU and was coming off the "high" of my experience that winter in Uganda. It was in Uganda that the dreams I had for using education, dance and the arts as a form of healing were solidified into a calling for my life. That June, a desire started developing in my heart...a desire to go to the Middle East to do this work. It caught me off-guard. The Middle East??? No, not there. I wanted to go back to Africa! Why was this interest creeping into my heart?

I've always been interested in travel and other cultures. I grew up listening with much eagerness to my grandmother's stories of her travels. I dreamed of going to Africa and loved the vibrant culture of South America. The travel section has always been my go-to section in any bookstore. I love cultures, languages and the idea of exploring the world. However, the Middle East never really crossed my mind, except to maybe travel there you know, one day. So I pushed off this interest as just a "crazy, weird idea" and tried to ignore it.

But it would not go away. It actually began occupying my mind and my heart much more. After a few weeks, it was clear that I had a choice: face it or continue to ignore it. I made the decision to pursue it, no matter how much it did not make sense in my life.

But what could this look like in my life? Could this be something that I was meant to do? I took that step of faith and began to pursue this desire. Actually, it's wasn't just a step...I jumped in.

I started with the logistics. Was it possible to do this? Where could I go? Was it safe? What was already being done in the education and psychotherapy/arts therapy field in this region? I began researching programs and possible opportunities to work with.

The desire started to grow.

I read anything I could put my hands on about the area, the culture, the history and the politics. I found myself starting to go to the "Middle East" section on news websites before my usual sections. Seminars at NYU about Middle East politics and issues caught my attention. And I went...even if I was the only arts person in a room full of political science and foreign affairs grad students. I signed up for an Arabic class. I fell in love with the language, the way it sounded, the way it looked and I started really wanting to use it. I found myself wanting to go overseas...dreaming of going. It was no longer this "crazy, weird idea" but an ambition.

Then it was time to tell my friends and family. It wasn't that easy. All my life I had talked of Africa but never the Middle East. It was even more difficult explaining that this interest just developed and I decided to pursue it. You can imagine their response...

Why did I want to go to such a conservative society? Would they even accept my ideas, wouldn't they think of them as too "progressive"? Why would a woman want to go to an area of the world that did not treat women that well?

These were questions I was continually asked and answers I myself, was still looking for. Stereotypes, misunderstandings and prejudices started surfacing as I began to communicate my ideas and interests to others. These misunderstandings fired me up...why were we so ignorant when it came to this culture? Why have we been so uneducated?

As time went on, there was not an opportunity to go overseas. So I looked for ways to pursue this growing desire in my own community. While in NYC, I volunteered to teach ESL and computer literacy classes at a center for Arab-American women, many of them refugees. Through teaching these women, I built relationships and learned more about their culture. I listened to their stories, of their struggles and again, the desire inside me continued to grow.

When I moved to DC I found a similar opportunity to work with refugees. I began to mentor a family who just came to America from Iraq. It was an incredible experience and it opened my heart in so many ways. I bonded with the mother while learning how to cook traditional Iraqi meals and in conversations filled with broken English and much use of an Arabic-English dictionary. As I helped the father write his resume, he opened up to me about life back in Iraq. Parts of his story broke my heart. I realized that I could live out this desire in my own community. However, there was still a hope to one day make it overseas.

Frustration started to appear. I watched friends, acquaintances, co-workers go overseas and travel with a purpose. I envied them. But I felt that it was not my time yet. So I waited. I continued to volunteer. I continued to study the language. I kept researching and educating myself on the area...all with the hope that I would one day go.

I finally made a peace with that however and wherever I was to use this calling, I would.

I listened, I followed, I trusted, I loved and I grew.

These past two years have been an amazing time of growth; academically, professionally, emotionally and personally. Most of all, I have witnessed firsthand that when you feel those "tugs" at your heart, to follow them and have faith. Because when you do, it will make sense. Eventually. And it will be better than you imagined.

This past winter, I came across this teaching program and their call for applicants for their summer program. I felt the "tug", and so I applied, waited, heard back and accepted.

And next week, I will finally be traveling to the area that two years earlier was only a blip on my radar. A place in the world that I used to pass over when in the travel section of the bookstore. A language that I never understood. A culture I knew nothing about.

Now it's a place I cannot wait to get to, a culture I can not wait to experience...

...and people I cannot wait to love.