New Ghana Blog

Please be directed to my new blog site for my upcoming trip to Africa!
www.together-we-are.com

Please read, donate, like, and pass it on, spread the word!

Love Always,
Rebecca

Together We Are

02.21.11
Hello everyone!

So I believe I have talked to some of you about this upcoming project..and others of you have no idea what I'm talking about right now! Well this summer I will be living, working, volunteering, and documenting in Ghana, West Africa. I am leaving just after graduating high school and returning a week before I leave for college in Savannah, Georgia. I will be working with Light for Children, an organization focused on supporting HIV positive children in the Ashanti region. Along with volunteering for three months I will be making a documentary about my journey, Light for Children, living with AIDS, and the amazing people of Ghana. 

I am embarking on this mission and am funding the entire trip myself. This is my dream trip and I have been trying to save as much as possible over the past few years to be able to have enough money to go. I have crunched the numbers between what I have saved and what needs to be spend...and they turn up in the red. Please consider making a donation through the donation page on my website. 

For more information about me, this project, and how you can help please visit this project's website at: 

www.together-we-are.com

Also, if you are on facebook please like this fanpage.

Thank you in advance for all of your support, I really appreciate it. Email me if you have any questions, concerns or comments.

Please forward this message on to anyone who you think would be interested in this project!

Love, Rebecca Kuntz

Snowpocalypse 2011

02.02.11
You thought there was a lot of snow in my last post?....Well guess again. I have never seen this much snow in my entire life. Chicago was hit with 40 mile an hour winds, 2 feet of snow, white out conditions and 4 foot snow drifts...all in 24 hours. Every school in the area is closed sending students running outside to act like children again and play in the snow.

Winter Wanderlust

1.17.2011
Reading travel blogs, writing scholarship application essays, sipping hot coco, watching documentaries, searching for cheap flights.
What's better than a day off school?

Flights to where you ask? Stay tuned, within the next month I will announce where and when my next adventure begins. For those of you who know please don't spoil the surprise!


Enjoy your day wherever in the world you may be. Carpe Diem

30 Seconds of Life

01.07.2011

Heart racing, palms sweating, a multi-colored nylon rope clutched between my hands. I inch closer to the edge of the wooden platform. My mind races and the thumping in my chest picks up tempo. "Here goes nothing" my mind says without thinking of the possible imminent danger ahead. Leaning forward in one swift movement, the harness pulls against my hips, only my toes remain attached to the platform. The carabiner locks and I am now staring straight down at the ground thirty feet below me. I slowly release the rope from my grip as I begin to walk down the wall, feeling more at ease with every step. My feet reach the red line and now I'm free to fly. Kicking off the wall, I sail into the air, knowing that my life is literally anchored between my fingers. The rope glides and I loosen my grip to nothing, catapulting into a free fall. Hearing nothing but the rush of air flow past me, tasting the minty gum that keeps my mouth from getting dangerously dry, seeing life on the ground fast approaching, smelling the chalk that coats my hands, feeling my sweaty palms grab the rope feet before I hit the ground. Did I just experience life in fast forward or slow motion?

--Lyons Township High School Period 1 Gym (Adventure Education)

(Just an example of Australian Rappelling [what this post was about])

2010 in Review

January 2010- Ringing in the new year with my best friends by my side. Looking forward to 2010 and all the adventures it brings.

February 2010- French Exchange students from Marseille, France arrive in the United States. Marianne quickly became another member of our family and we miss her dearly!
March 2010- Just 5 weeks after the French Exchange students came to Chicago, we were packed up and ready to fly off to France. Because of heavy snow (in March?!?!) our flight was delayed for 3 hours and we all were itching to leave. We said au revoir to our parents and flew off on a whirlwind adventure.

April 2010- A picture with a baguette...when in France...do as the French do! The baguettes were cheap and were plentiful. My first international trip included being pick pocketed, climbing the Eiffel Tower, shopping in the markets, eating crepes and much more.

May 2010- Working on a film for LTTV (Lyons Township Television), the television station at my high school. The film was a murder mystery with a twist. LTTV is my home away from home and I probably spend more time at school than I do at home.
June 2010- My younger brother, Josh, graduated from 8th grade and is now in the same high school as me (scary). We have 2 campuses at my school so I never see him. My little brothers are growing up too fast!
July 2010- This picture was taken at base camp of our backpacking trip to the Stanley Hot Springs in western Idaho. To read more about my trip with the Student Conservation Association please visit the post.
August 2010- After returning from my trip to Idaho and working as a nanny the rest of the summer a 4 day mini vacation to a friend's lake house was a must. 4 days filled with tubing, water skiing, swimming, kayaking, boating and soaking up some rays.
September 2010- Some of my best friends and I went to a Rascal Flatts concert the weekend after school started and had a blast. They are my favorite band and everyone enjoyed themselves.
October 2010- After being accepted to SCAD and having my heart set on attending my dad and I took a trip down to Savannah, Georgia to check it out. I fell in love with SCAD and the city that surrounds it. The opportunities available to the students are unprecedented and all the professors have worked professionally in the fields they are teaching. I can not wait to begin classes in fall 2011
November 2010- Yet another film in production in cooperation with LTTV. This was the first film that I produced, directed, and edited all by myself. The finished product ended up being over 8 minutes but because of the competition I was entering I had to cut it in half. To see Date with Cthulhu please visit my vimeo.

December 2010- With the year coming to a close I realize that this was a year of firsts. First time out of the United States, first time backpacking, first college visit, first college acceptance, and some of the first times I've truly felt alive.

"As a big 2010 came to its conclusion I felt purposeful and satisfied, but also on the verge of overwhelm. 2011 and 2012 will be even bigger - how can I maintain momentum without forgetting to live in the moment? This is the challenge and the opportunity of the year: to create sustainable growth in all areas while retaining a core sense of identity." -Chris Guillebeau

What am I looking forward to in 2011?

A possible volunteer trip to Haiti, graduating high school, spending the summer in Ghana, making documentaries, moving out, starting college, traveling to the ends of the world, pursuing my passions, and living every moment to it's fullest.

Meilleurs Vœux

Nejlepší přání

最良好的祝愿

Onnentoivotukset

Auguri

Parimate soovidega

ด้วยค

Best Wishes,

Rebecca Kuntz

Moments of Zen

12.23.10

[Zen]- To seek enlightenment by meditation in which there is no consciousness of self.

Hmm...meditation....yeah I can barely sit still for 5 minutes without having to get up and run a lap around the room. Even though I have never meditated, I have tried. Whenever I would sit and try to meditate I could never quiet my mind enough to sit and just feel my chest rise and fall. My mind races at a thousand times a minute and constantly jumps from one idea to the next, sometimes not even having time to complete one thought before moving to the next. Even though I never have meditated I can say I have felt zen. To me zen should be defined as follows:

[Zen]- A moment when one is at peace, when nothing else matters but being in that moment and feeling as though they are truly living.

It might be a bit wordy but I believe it gets my true thought across. Zen doesn't have to be sitting still, trying every possible way to make your mind shut up and just be. Zen can be found in a moment when your mind can't stay on one single idea for more than a second. The point is that zen depends on the person. Zen to one might be sitting in a yoga studio listening to a soothing voice try to talk all of the thoughts from your mind, but zen to another person might be found riding an almost broken down bus across the Sahara. I know I am in a moment of zen when I want to be nowhere else but in that moment, if someone were to offer me a million dollars in that moment I would refuse because nothing else matters.

As you know this spring I took my first trip abroad through the French Exchange at my school. I can't even begin to describe all the moments of complete zen I had while visiting the beautiful towns along the Mediterranean coast as well as the chic capital of Paris. My favorite moment of zen had to be when I was flying back home to Chicago from Paris. We had just reached the point when it was safe to remove our seat belts so of course there was a massive rush to the two bathrooms available to economy flyers. People were walking up and down isles, languages I could not understand were being spoken like buzzing bees, and flight attendants were pushing carts around with 30 different drinks, all of which I wanted to try. And with all this chaos circling around me, I was at peace. I knew that I was flying home to family that loves me, but I also knew I was speeding miles away from a second family. I was being torn in two separate directions. I was looking forward to going home and sharing millions of stories with friends and family, but every minute that passed a piece of my heart was being ripped from the country that captured it during the past two weeks. In a child's game of tug-of-war if one side pulls harder, the other side gets yanked away from the side where they started. If the sides were evenly matched it causes a freeze, no one winning and no one losing. France verses the United States, each wanting to win over the love of my heart. Going back and forth, one was winning, and in the next minute the other was on top. Something changed within me in an instant. The country war was snapped to a standstill. Both pulling equally, the two countries were evenly matched. They both hold family and friends near and dear to my heart, both have beautiful city and countryside, both I now consider home.

I have never felt more connected to myself or the world around me than when I was in Idaho this past summer for three weeks. Three weeks of no television, no internet, or even bathrooms and showers. During this time I realized how boxed in I felt in the "real" world. Every day I am constantly surrounded by walls whether they be the four walls of my bedroom, the endless white walls at school, and the invisible walls in my mind, blocking out all fear, danger, and the terrors of the world. Through my experiences in Idaho I worked, lived, and breathed nature, every part of it. I witnessed a moose crossing a stream near hot springs in the mountains, wolves howling me to sleep each night and even swimming in a waterfall The specific moment when I felt this unbreaking bond with nature was on our recreation backpack trip. We slept overnight at a campsite at the bottom of the mountain, falling asleep to the rushing rapids below. The next morning we packed only the necessities into our bags and started the six mile trek through the forest covering the mountain. After crossing two flowing streams we were about a half a mile from our destination of the hot spring and very hungry. We decided to stop for lunch before hiking the last leg to our site. We found this huge natural rock formation that we all could climb up onto and eat lunch and talk. I took off my pack at the bottom and climbed up to the top and ate lunch and laughed with my new family. I finished eating and decided to walk around the huge steps and enjoy the breathtaking views. I sat on the edge of a rock with a thirty foot drop below. With my feet dangling over the edge, I just sat. I sat and let the thoughts run in and out of my head as they may, and for the first time in a very long time I was at peace, at peace with myself and at peace with my surroundings. The walls both physical and mental were breaking down. I had finally knocked down the walls that stood between myself and nature, and also between myself and my thoughts. I felt as though all the fear within me was rushing away with the river below. Fear jumped off the cliff I was sitting on and waved goodbye as it went for a chilly ride down the river. The block that I felt between nature and I decided to walk itself back down the mountain, never to return. I stood up, feeling a lot lighter, because trust me those walls weighed me down, and ran back to my crew and suited back up to continue the final stretch to the hot springs. Standing at the airport in Lewiston, Idaho three days later, was the first time that physical walls stood around me in 21 days. After not having anything to block me in for three weeks, one would think that the feeling of claustrophobia would quickly set in, but no I had never felt so free. Free to live life to the fullest, because I knew that fear and danger were left on the mountain, never to return again.

Breathtaking Views

What is your definition of zen and where have you found it?