Nathalia, Lebanon

«Day after day, team meeting after team meeting, topics came up, questions were asked, and we engaged in elegant, thoughtful discussions—not with the aim of changing anyone’s opinion, but to share our thoughts.”.

We were invited to a party on our last night in Italy, and we found ourselves dancing and holding hands. We just wanted to have fun, dance, love one another, play, express ourselves, and be ourselves. We became friends.

Then we boarded the boat, and the journey began under difficult conditions.

Everyone was suffering; everyone was trying to fight off the feeling of seasickness. Everyone needed someone to help them. Very few people didn’t feel sick or were able to withstand the rough seas. Thank God, I was one of those who could hold my own. I instinctively found myself there for those who needed help, doing everything I could to make them feel better: making hot drinks, lending my clothes, finding medicine, and even struggling to get down into the cabins—while the yacht was pitching from side to side—to fetch things for my friends and family. Suddenly, without even realizing it, I felt closer to people who had seemed very distant to me on the first day.

The tasks brought us closer together: cleaning, preparing meals, and sailing the boat. Each activity brought us a little closer, day after day. We began to open up to one another about deep and sensitive topics and to truly listen to one another.

I've learned that nothing in this world—no issue, no principle, no culture—is worth losing a friend over just to be right.

This experience didn’t just open my eyes to the idea of brotherhood among us and to the fact that, in some ways, we’re all alike. It led me to reflect on something even deeper: how a person might reject someone upon first meeting them, only to discover wonderful qualities as they get to know them better and eventually come to love them. If we give those around us a chance and don’t close the door after the first encounter, we’ll discover profound riches in the other person and eventually come to love them.»

Nathalia