why AFS is important

today i was planning on posting about jitters and how france is only a month and a half away and all the cool people I've already met but I changed my mind. today i decided to blog about something important: afs. recently i walked in a black lives matter march in newark and went to an event in my town with the maplewood and south orange police officers. i have watched black men get executed all over the country, police officers killed in dallas, a bomb go off in bagdhad, and now at least 75 people killed in nice while celebrating their culture. this world is hurting, to say the least. about a week ago i was feeling mildly terrified about leaving for france because i have some social anxiety and i was really scared i would not be able to make friends. however, now i feel bolstered with a new sense of bravery and courage because what afs does is bigger than making friends, it's bigger than my anxiety, and it's bigger than the hate and fear that seems to govern the world we live in today. afs shapes the world's next leaders and guides them to understand people regardless of how similar they are. afs teaches love and pushes young people to expand their global competency. these things can be used in bagdhad, nice, and newark new jersey. once you learn to love people that cannot be taken away from you and can easily be applied to any situation. if i can empathize with people in france it can't be that hard for me to empathize with people in my town. it is the job of my generation to change things and i believe if anyone can do it, we can. thank you afs for doing what you do and making the world a better place one teen at a time.

love yall, anj