One Story

She was in her twenties and had never left her home state when she decided to teach English in Thailand. She expected — reasonably — to be held by a kind of safety net: fellow teachers, school leaders, a community that badly wanted a native English speaker for its children.

Then one afternoon, riding her bicycle on a busy road, a van crowded her deliberately off the edge. She went down a ravine with the bike and lay there unconscious. A family walking a footpath into town found her, tangled in the undergrowth — alive, alert, unable to manage alone — and flagged down help from the road.

Within days she was back at school. Her family urged her to come home. The school offered to release her from her contract. She refused. She had come to be of service — in Thailand, a child who truly learns English can change a family's direction for a generation — and she would not let one driver rewrite her reason for being there. Her headmaster told us that her smile afterward was the same as before. She finished her contract to the last day, and only then flew home.

I keep a photograph of her. When I see it, I remember that the world is in better hands than the news would have you believe.

One Step

Her safety net worked — a family, a school, a program. Build yours before you need it. Three unglamorous moves: carry travel medical insurance that explicitly covers hospitalization and emergency evacuation (they are separate line items — check both); register your trip with your own government so someone official knows where you are — Americans use the State Department's free STEP, Australians Smartraveller, Canadians the Registration of Canadians Abroad, New Zealanders SafeTravel, and Britons should at minimum subscribe to FCDO alerts for the country so someone official knows where you are; and on day one, put the local emergency number and your program's emergency contact in your phone and on paper in your wallet. She was helped by strangers within hours. The paperwork is for the day the strangers don't come.

One Question

If your crossing hit its worst day, what would decide whether you stayed — the fear of that moment, or the reason you came? It's worth knowing your reason well enough to answer before anything tests it.

— Randy

I've spent 50+ years in international education and cultural exchange — a front-row seat to people changing careers, countries, and lives. If you're putting together a panel, a podcast, or a story and want a voice from the field, just reply. Replies come straight to me, and I read every one.