About the Watson & this Blog
I’ve loved travel blogs since I was a teenager. I always dreamed of traveling the world and writing my own blog.
Starting my Watson Fellowship was the perfect catalyst for me to make my blog dream a reality, so in this first post, I’ll share a bit about my Watson story thus far and some plans for the blog.
What is the Watson?
The Thomas J. Watson Fellowship (often referred to as “the Watson”) is a one-year grant for purposeful, independent exploration focused on a project of the fellow’s own design. Awarded to graduating seniors nominated by 41 colleges in the U.S., it is an opportunity to imagine one’s whole self and to blend their deepest interest with their values and aspirations on a global scale. Fellows must stay outside of the U.S. and countries in which they’ve spent more than a month. Otherwise, they can decide where to go, who to meet and when to change course.
Why did I apply for this Fellowship, and what is my project about?
I first saw a poster about the Watson Fellowship during orientation week at Wellesley in the fall of 2016. Immediately I felt that I was seeing the right thing at the right place at the right time. I decided that I would apply in three years even though I had barely started my career at Wellesley. Over the next few years, I collected dozens of project ideas that popped into my mind, often as I was reading, taking a walk, or listening to a lecture.
In a nutshell, my project is about exploring plant-based foodscapes and communities around the world. Since becoming vegan in 2018, my ongoing quest has been to figure out how I can best contribute to creating a more compassionate, plant-based, and healthier world. By cooking, dining, and living with plant-based eaters, I hope to understand their motivations and practices for maintaining their lifestyles and how they build communities.
As much as my Watson is about exploring the world of social and environmental transformations through plant-based food, it is also about diving deeper into myself. One thing perhaps most Watson Fellows have heard of and are surprised by is that the Fellowship is more of an investment in us as individuals than in our projects. In the words of the Foundation, “the program produces a year of personal insight, perspective and confidence that shapes the arc of fellows' lives.”
In that spirit, I will not see the end of my Watson as a deadline for me to create a product out of my travels. I’m not going to engage in hamster-wheel blog production. What I will do is to seek experiences and build connections that will help me and those I meet become the best versions of ourselves.
So what is this blog about and for?
I imagine this blog will be filled with personal reflections related to not only my project but also my life broadly. More importantly, it will allow me to keep in touch with family and friends in a meaningful way while traveling.
I don’t exactly know where this will lead me, so follow along and find out with me! 👣