Boston

I had the opportunity to go to Boston yesterday with the Presidential Student Ambassador Program that I am involved in at school. First of all it was a gorgeous day! There was a nice sea breeze and it didn't rain which was great!
We took the train in from Haverhill and then headed over to Copley square and had lunch a Boco on Newbury street. They are this little burrito place that has all sorts of wraps and smoothies and they have an incredible homemade guacamole! It was yummy!
Then we walked over to the Boston Public Library and walked through the Choosing to Participate exhibit. The hole exhibit was about people who chose to participate and stand up against the wrongs in there life from genocide in Cambodia to the Little Rock 6, to the Racist activities in Billings Montana in the early 90's. The part of the exhibit that hit me the most was there was a wall with pictures of immigrants from their teens to early twenties who were telling their immigration stories. There were three that were particularly moving to me... The first was a girl from Chechnya. Her family had to move a few times when their homes kept being bombed by the Russian government, at one point the soldiers came after her father who was in hiding and they kidnapped her and the rest of her family and held them captive until her father surrendered. After the surrender her family escaped the captures and had to be smuggled out of the country in a cardboard box in the back of a shipping truck. When I first read this I thought to myself this couldn't have been recently -- but it all occurred in the late 90's!! Another story was a boy and his family that immigrated from China. His father brought the family here for a better life and so that his family could have more than one child. His father had a PhD in his country and the only job he could find in the U.S. to support his family was cleaning the local high school. The last story was of a girl from Israel who was a senior in high school. Her goal was to graduate from high school here in the States and then go back to Israel to join the army. She just felt that the persecution and the limited resources for immigrants in this country was too difficult to overcome.
The whole exhibit was eye opening for me. I think I take the fact that I am an American citizen for granted! I don't feel like I have had to deal with any of the same issues that many of these immigrants do, and for that I am very grateful! I am very blessed and this exhibit made me realize how blessed I really am!
After the exhibit at the library we walked over to Boston City Hall and walked through the Holocaust monument. For those who haven't seen it, all I can say is that you need to!! One the glass spires are inscribed with the identification numbers of the six million people killed by the Nazi's as well as quotes from some of the survivors. The quote that hit me the most was by a women who was in a concentration camp with a friend and her friend found one raspberry as she was working one day -- and this is what the women says about the situation -- "What if your only possession in the whole world is one lone raspberry, and you give that raspberry to a friend." This quote was truly profound to me, because how many of us would be willing to give up everything for someone else -- even when we ourselves are in a dire situation. It just made me think.
We ended our day with dinner at Pizzeria Regina in the North End, which was fabulous! And you can't go to the North End without getting pastries, so we had Chocolate Mousse Cannoli's and Lobster Tails from Mike's Pastries and both were amazing!
All in all it was a fabulous day and I am grateful that I had the chance to go!!