Nicholoas Kristof announced his Win-A-Trip 2012 contest this past week, an opportunity this year open to students only to travel with him for ten days to two weeks and blog with both written and video content.  He describes what he’s looking for in fairly vague terms:

So what kind of a person am I looking for? The truth is, I’m not entirely sure – except that I want someone with excellent communication skills, who can blog and vlog (video blog) in ways that will capture the interest of other readers. If you’ve done blogging, vlogging or journalism, be sure to mention that — in sparkling prose! Ditto for anything else that makes you special or will make your voice more memorable.

While I am not sure if I will apply yet, the concept is intriguing and, as Kristof says, one need not win this contest to have this type of trip.  I’ve already experienced the “on the ground” part, but I only documented my Niger journey the “old-fashioned way,” with pen and paper and a camera — no instant sharing.  My sharing happened monthly, or perhaps even less frequently than that, given the slow internet connections and other uploading challenges.  The deeper sharing happened (and continues to happen) upon my return.

Touching stories about life, tales that make us laugh and cry, are everywhere — not just overseas.  We are all a collection of stories, a human anthology, and those who understand the stories that are not their own, those who take these stories to others to paint a holistic image of what it means to be alive in this century, these are the bridge builders for tomorrow.

My term in Bainbridge Graduate Institute’s Using the Social Web for Social Change class is coming to an end (one more post left for me to write), but this blog will continue in a second iteration and beyond.  As this first iteration closes, I have a few questions for my readers:

What  was your favorite post thus far?

What topics would you like to see me address in the coming months?

How can I better connect to you, the reader?

Happy December, happy story telling. Remember, you do not need to travel to have a trip.