MY NAME is Claire Anne Rementilla.
(she is an aspiring travel journalist)

The way I would change the world would not be something tangible, costly, or pitch-fork-and-torches controversial.

I will change the world by opening the eyes of people who have only lived to see one side of this world, this reality.

When I become a travel journalist, I hope to start my own personal column. I would title it, “Beauty Despite–”

And in this column, there will be an array of photographs, poetry, memoirs, & short stories all creatively intertwined with one another. When I travel, I want to go to many places; places that have a stigma upon them. A place where, generally, the world thinks is a sad, desolate, war struck or unimportant place. I will interview many adults and even children, take photographs of the true & unknown beauty of that place, publish it, & show the world that there can be beauty despite anything.

For example, I could go to Kenya, a country that houses around 11 million orphans, & take fantastic photographs of sunrises and sunsets, family gatherings, children playing happily, perhaps a mother teacher her daughter how to cook. And from that, I will write & show the truth to all viewers, that people and places are never what they seem. I want the world to see both sides of life.

And I hope to shine a new, hopeful light upon the places I visit, the people i’ve seen & laughed with.

There truly is beauty & hope in this world, despite the wars, the famines, the droughts, the disease and the pain.