While abroad, it is really easy to get wrapped in your own bubble of experience. I have noticed this about myself this summer and have been actively fighting this instinct. I know that I am constantly trying to push my boundaries while being here–whether it be jumping into an icy waterfall, trying to eat food with only my hands and nsima (blob of maize flour and water), or convincing myself to enter wards knowing I’ll see patients in a lot of pain.

Ironically, when I was opening my mind to new things and experiences, I seemed to have closed it the goings on of the rest of the world. I was focused on Malawi, and not much could shake that. With limited internet, in this day and age, it can be very difficult to stay informed about current events. Now that I realized how wrapped up I was in time here, I have made efforts to stay informed and not use poor Wi-Fi as an excuse to be ignorant.

What changed between that time and now was Orlando. Hearing about the biggest mass shooting in history shocked me, to say the very least. I wanted to be in the US; I wanted to mourn with my country; I wanted to talk about it endlessly and try to make sense of something that had no answer. I angrily googled things and read the latest reports about the shooter and his victims, stories from the families of the affected, speculations about the shooter’s background and motivations, and reactions from our country’s leaders and presidential candidates. This tragedy, among other things, made me realize how important it is to be a well informed global citizen. It is important to learn the incredible things I’m learning here, but vital to stay connected to the world outside my environment of Blantyre.

Since the tragedy in Orlando, there has been police shootings in Dallas and Baton Rouge, attacks in Istanbul and Nice, a political uprising in Turkey, and so many more horrible events where so many have died. Just as I am writing this now, my phone buzzed with a news alert with a headline that 2 people were killed and 17 were shot outside a club in Fort Myers, Florida. Out of all of the ways these tragedies have affected the world, me becoming more cognizant of life outside my bubble is insignificant by an impressive magnitude, but it has affected how I view the world and myself more than I know or can process.