When your daughter is sick on the other side of the world.

Melissa called last week and started right off with stories of her amazing experiences… but she couldn’t hide what her father heard in her voice:

“How are you feeling?”

“How’d you know?

I waited anxiously to get a hold of the phone. She had been to the clinic for a chest infection. After lots of news on both ends, including her amazement at the free health care she was able to receive in South Africa, I told her to get well and sleep inside the tent until she felt better. We said good-bye. My mind was a whir—my little blonde child from rural upstate New York in a health clinic in South Africa-- what a lesson in what it is like to be different. Amazing… but wait a minute… my little girl… sick… in a health clinic in South Africa?

Of course, I started to worry. I asked Jennifer to check on her. Still, I knew most certainly that she was in good hands—more than well equipped to handle a bout of illness. I remembered a call home early in the South America Semester when Melissa told me about her friend who needed to have a surgical procedure. How the Traveling School had worked through things; how her mother was flying down to Quito for the surgery and staying with her a few days until she could rejoin the group. I remembered how anxious Melissa sounded then, her voice weak, so far from home. And then I saw it again: how strong she’d grown, how remarkably the group had pulled together.

When Melissa returned home from South America, I reflected on how many times I had been told that she would come back a different person. The next day, I wrote the teachers to let them know that she hadn’t: she was the same person, only so much more. I couldn’t find the right words; I still can’t. And so, while I wait to hear that Melissa has indeed recuperated, I remember the lessons of strength and courage, of compassion and friendship. And I am once again amazed and inspired. I’m sure most of you have had days like me-- maybe your daughter is sick or sad or maybe you just miss her. On those days, I recommend that you sit back and think about what this experience means for all of our daughters, and I am sure that you too will feel grateful for the more-ness of it all.

"Never doubt that a small group of people can change the world. Indeed it is the only thing that ever has." ~Margaret Mead