There are so many things that I wish I could say right now. As a white teenage male, I am in no way a minority, or "target group" as we say, but this experience has truly touched my heart. As I walked around sites like Fort Fisher, Somerset Place, and Edenton, I came to realize how inhuman my race has been towards people. It is a story we're told in school as children, but it is a rare experience to LIVE where former enslaved people were, see the condition of their housing, and attempt to see what they may have seen. The world in North Carolina seems a little less bright after seeing all these tragic events and places first hand, but in my heart I have hope. I can look around at our group of people, see the different races, see the different genders, see the different backgrounds, but at the end of the day we are one community. The laughter and stories that I have shared with the other guys in our group are so uplifting I think we forget that our skin color is any different from one anothers. I do miss my mom and my dad a lot as well as my goofy little brother and silly big sister, but I feel blessed to be a part of this group.
This experience has already taught me so much, but I know I'm not done learning yet. I know the other youth are with me when I say we think about our families often and will be glad to see them when we get back. But now I gotta go, it's dinner time!!
Erich Hoffmann
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