In the Blink of an Eye: The Story of Nepal’s Kopila Valley Children’s Home

I’m not sure whether everyone can pinpoint the exact moment when their life changed and they started living with intention as readily as I can.

For me, it’s easy to recall the decision to take a gap year after high school. It wasn’t an easy one, but as I looked toward the future after graduating from a suburban high school, college bound like all of my peers, I realized I didn’t know much about the world around me. I hadn’t seen much of life outside the New Jersey suburbs. I knew there had to be more, and I didn’t want to live my life simply going through the motions, doing everything I felt I was expected to do.

This gap year saw me jumping around the globe with little more than a backpack. Twenty thousand miles later, I landed in the Himalayas. There, I befriended a girl about the same age as me, but with a life so different than my own.