Today’s perspective comes from Madison Fulford. Madison joined us abroad on DIRECT Cape Town from the University of Alabama.

The Danger of a Single Story” is a TED Global talk that was played for us during one of our morning meetings. The speech made by the brilliant Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie opened my eyes to the ignorance that us humans often have within us. We are quick to judge, jumping to conclusions based off of unfair stereotypes. And that is simply not fair. It’s not fair to the people we are making these assumptions about and it’s also not fair to ourselves.

Madison during service week
Every person, country, town, village has it’s own stories that define who it is and why. In discovering these stories, we can better understand the “whys” and we can even take what we hear from others and better ourselves. As a group on LeadAbroad, we tell our own life stories whenever we are all together. It is encouraging to know that no one is alone and although no story is the same, we can all support each other. Because we, as humans, are caring, beautiful beings that are capable of saving each other- all it takes is a listening ear, a caring heart, and faith. I’d like to thank LeadAbroad and the city of Cape Town for giving me this incredible experience and for all of the unforgettable life lessons I’ve learned.
Don’t just go… LEAD!