My life changed when I spent a summer in Ethiopia working on foot-and-mouth disease policy research. I now look back on my earlier life as a relatively sheltered kid from the northeast who descended from dairy farmers.
I had had a very easy life, one which my risks were very small in the grand scope of things. I took a chance on traveling to East Africa, something very much out of character for me to that point. It opened up an entirely new horizon of experience to me, one which I will be forever grateful for.
Despite the difficulties in logistics of research, the true difficulties were those of everyday activities and adapting to a whole new environment and culture. It was a revolutionary time for me, and has changed my life for the better ever since. In addition, my time there opened up future career doors, with there being a very distinct connection to that summer and the career I find myself in today.