I stepped off the plane in Oslo, Norway excited to attend the Oslo Freedom Forum, a gathering of the world’s most notable human rights activists, journalists, policymakers, technologists, and artists who share the goal of making the world a more democratic and peaceful place. After spending the semester abroad in Jordan and traveling to Lebanon, Palestine, Egypt, Israel, and Turkey, I was ready to engage in a community of activists working to promote human rights in that region and across the world.
However, wandering around the city of Oslo before the forum began, I couldn’t shake a nagging question: “What am I doing here?” The conflicts I want to work on, the languages I want to learn, and the people whose lives are touched by those conflicts were all back in the region I had just come from. What was I doing in this idyllic European city that felt so far removed from where I’d spent the past four months?
