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My name is Visar Rraci, I was born in the south-eastern Europe on the 3rd of December 2000, in a land not yet decided to have had the privilege of being a called country. After massacres, mass destructions, genocide, the displacement of between 1.2 million to 1.45 million Albanians, we proudly call that land now, Kosovo. Being born right after the war, is to this day the biggest blessing I was given, even though some call me a “celebration baby” and some refer to me as a “millennial baby boomer”.
As intriguing and interesting as they sound, I was never really interested in hearing about the stories that my family and other people went through during the war when I was growing up. Maybe it’s because I was not there to live it or because I saw the massive psychological harm it had done to people who were there, I chose to try and make a living for myself in a way that does not include chaos or violence of any sort. Growing up with that mindset in a society that is literally built on what you disagree with, is pretty difficult and you may end up in situations way out of your comfort zone pretty frequently. So the best way to avoid conflict and unnecessary debates for a kid like me was to lock myself down in a computer, in a world far away from the political shenanigans, the Albanian language & culture and just browse the amazing way of living called “The American dream”. I became so enthusiastic and driven learning English, photography and videography online that the fact that I had changed countries, schools, friends and neighborhoods went across unnoticed. At some point I became very obsessed with the fact that there are no like-minded people around me that and I just wanted to find a way to escape, other than the internet of course.
The years went by and my family and I kept bouncing around Kosovo and Albania pretty frequently until we settled down in Kosovo for good. I was going to high school still with the hopes of being able to live as an American teenager while being a kid from Kosovo one day (as crazy as that sounds). I was walking back home from school one day as my ears caught the amazing sound of speech, the English language, being spoken on an Up with People booth in the sidewalk. I approached and started having a blast with the PR team that had coordinated the booth, they told me all about the amazing program and told me they were looking for host families. Of course, having very uncontrolled hormones from learning that a program like Up with People exists and the fact that I was speaking English to a couple of Americans on the side of a street in Kosovo, I made the prompt not very well thought through decision of hosting someone right away! Remind you; I am a teenage kid living with his parents, working a 9-5 and going to high school.
After some time passed and I went through the horror of telling my still not recovered from war trauma parents, that I am bringing home a stranger from God knows where, to live with us for 2 weeks, the cast arrived!
I spent the most blissful, eye opening, motivating, crazy two weeks of my life with the traveling cast of UWP and I translated for them. I was sitting on the edge of my seat during their first show, still not being able to process the whole crazy concept of how 100 young people, 100 different stories, 100 backgrounds, from all over the world can get together with one vision,
“Through music and action, we empower young people to be positive agents of change for a more hopeful, trusting and peaceful world.” I was truly moved, I had realized a new dream, and a potential new direction for my life. It was the first time that I didn’t feel the need to leave Kosovo, I just wanted to be there, in the moment, on stage, amateurly performing a professional show side by side with a Mexican, an American, two very tall & blonde Swedish dudes, 100 accepting hearts and a full audience with tears in their eyes and now more hope in their souls.
From of course being the clingiest most energetic host family I was accepted on the program and received a massive scholarship along with sponsor help and had been issued a travel visa from the US embassy in Macedonia.
There it was, a brand new chapter, a whole new beginning.
As my endorphin, dopamine and serotonin levels were blasting through the roof I was trying to somehow manage to scramble together some ideas to try and get the most out of this experience. I ended up jumping off of cliffs in Colorado, went swimming with crocodiles every day in my back yard in Nebraska, learned water skiing in Oklahoma, held conferences, classes and activities for over 200 students older than me in universities around Louisiana, had the opportunity to sit with US congress representatives and ask them questions in Washington DC.
During the tour, in Geneva, Switzerland we had the opportunity to visit the UNHCR, and take part in a conference informing us about what the organization does with refugees all throughout the world. The presentation was empowering and eye opening and it really shifted my interests about my future career. Working for an international organization like the UN became a goal I set myself and I trust in Centenary to help me enhance my tools, craft new ones and educate me to make these goals a reality.
15 host families, 105 hours of volunteer work, over 100 personal interviews & class facilitations, 4 countries and 6 months later I came back to Kosovo as the same Visar with better vision and understanding of cultures and the world, updated English vocabulary, and all the confidence to achieve anything I set my mind to.
As intriguing and interesting as they sound, I was never really interested in hearing about the stories that my family and other people went through during the war when I was growing up. Maybe it’s because I was not there to live it or because I saw the massive psychological harm it had done to people who were there, I chose to try and make a living for myself in a way that does not include chaos or violence of any sort. Growing up with that mindset in a society that is literally built on what you disagree with, is pretty difficult and you may end up in situations way out of your comfort zone pretty frequently. So the best way to avoid conflict and unnecessary debates for a kid like me was to lock myself down in a computer, in a world far away from the political shenanigans, the Albanian language & culture and just browse the amazing way of living called “The American dream”. I became so enthusiastic and driven learning English, photography and videography online that the fact that I had changed countries, schools, friends and neighborhoods went across unnoticed. At some point I became very obsessed with the fact that there are no like-minded people around me that and I just wanted to find a way to escape, other than the internet of course.
The years went by and my family and I kept bouncing around Kosovo and Albania pretty frequently until we settled down in Kosovo for good. I was going to high school still with the hopes of being able to live as an American teenager while being a kid from Kosovo one day (as crazy as that sounds). I was walking back home from school one day as my ears caught the amazing sound of speech, the English language, being spoken on an Up with People booth in the sidewalk. I approached and started having a blast with the PR team that had coordinated the booth, they told me all about the amazing program and told me they were looking for host families. Of course, having very uncontrolled hormones from learning that a program like Up with People exists and the fact that I was speaking English to a couple of Americans on the side of a street in Kosovo, I made the prompt not very well thought through decision of hosting someone right away! Remind you; I am a teenage kid living with his parents, working a 9-5 and going to high school.
After some time passed and I went through the horror of telling my still not recovered from war trauma parents, that I am bringing home a stranger from God knows where, to live with us for 2 weeks, the cast arrived!
I spent the most blissful, eye opening, motivating, crazy two weeks of my life with the traveling cast of UWP and I translated for them. I was sitting on the edge of my seat during their first show, still not being able to process the whole crazy concept of how 100 young people, 100 different stories, 100 backgrounds, from all over the world can get together with one vision,
“Through music and action, we empower young people to be positive agents of change for a more hopeful, trusting and peaceful world.” I was truly moved, I had realized a new dream, and a potential new direction for my life. It was the first time that I didn’t feel the need to leave Kosovo, I just wanted to be there, in the moment, on stage, amateurly performing a professional show side by side with a Mexican, an American, two very tall & blonde Swedish dudes, 100 accepting hearts and a full audience with tears in their eyes and now more hope in their souls.
From of course being the clingiest most energetic host family I was accepted on the program and received a massive scholarship along with sponsor help and had been issued a travel visa from the US embassy in Macedonia.
There it was, a brand new chapter, a whole new beginning.
As my endorphin, dopamine and serotonin levels were blasting through the roof I was trying to somehow manage to scramble together some ideas to try and get the most out of this experience. I ended up jumping off of cliffs in Colorado, went swimming with crocodiles every day in my back yard in Nebraska, learned water skiing in Oklahoma, held conferences, classes and activities for over 200 students older than me in universities around Louisiana, had the opportunity to sit with US congress representatives and ask them questions in Washington DC.
During the tour, in Geneva, Switzerland we had the opportunity to visit the UNHCR, and take part in a conference informing us about what the organization does with refugees all throughout the world. The presentation was empowering and eye opening and it really shifted my interests about my future career. Working for an international organization like the UN became a goal I set myself and I trust in Centenary to help me enhance my tools, craft new ones and educate me to make these goals a reality.
15 host families, 105 hours of volunteer work, over 100 personal interviews & class facilitations, 4 countries and 6 months later I came back to Kosovo as the same Visar with better vision and understanding of cultures and the world, updated English vocabulary, and all the confidence to achieve anything I set my mind to.