I met John in Costa Rica five years ago. We walked around San Jose downtown and his kindness and love caught my heart. The way he was with his kids and the look of his eyes when I was talking to him struck my heart. My broken English was making the conversation more difficult, but He never stopped listening. He kept asking for my goals and dreams, I'll tried to reply the questions over and over, sometimes with the right words and sometimes explaining the word I was trying to say. It took us twice the time of a single conversation. He always listened.
Always a teacher and encourager, he spoke about my studies and quoted a few authors to support what he was trying to say. I felt the gaze of his eyes digging deeper into my heart. “What do you want to be?” “What do you think about studying in the U.S.?” he said And here is where the story began.
Everything started in my new home in California. After living for twenty one years in Costa Rica I moved in to John's house with the other Norton's family members to finish my studies in the United States. The Norton's family decided to pay for my studies and let me live with them during that time. As the months passed by they became my family and so I did. John became my friend and pastor, his soft words and wisdom pushed my life to a whole new level. I wanted to be like him, I wanted to follow his steps and motions. We started reading books together, cleaning the garage, bike riding and playing soccer. A bond grew but a change in our story turned our lives upside down. Never again would we be the same after our Around The World Semester, our journey within the journey.
This new adventure begins in Orange County when two professors from Concordia decided to take twenty five students in a semester abroad, around the world. With a PHD on Shakespeare, his love for literature can make students love poetry, novels, textbooks and history books. During the last month and three weeks I have been following closely the steps of professor Norton, his motions and his words have an inspiring secret that goes beyond understanding.
As a professor his example of daily life reflects what he say's in class. He is a lamp that guides me through the secrets of life and literature. If there is a moment I can bring back from this trip to fully show his passion for literature it was when in one of our World Religions class, he was faced by twenty three students discouraged by the lecture of the Qur'an. He stopped the class and brought out a profound teaching about loving people by understanding their beliefs and forcing ourselves to find the meaning of a book that had brought millions of people to believe in Islam as the only true religion. Just as this passion for literature is one of his gifts, humility is also one of the characteristics of John Norton.
In the present, as I travel the world with John, it has amazed me the humility and simplicity of his actions, which by the way makes traveling fascinating. In one of our stops in Jordan while all our group was waiting for the ferry that was going to takes us from Egypt to Jordan, John started talking to some of the locals about the Arabic language. “He is my language professor. How come he is asking to a random man about the right way to say and write the numbers?” I thought. I realized later that he was a student too just like the twenty five students on the trip. He knows that he does not know all. He asks his students for information and allows them to teach about what they know. The humility of his heart and his desire for knowledge has become a virus that goes through my bloodstream and invades my soul. It has been turning my trip into a unique lifetime experience.
During my trip around the world with my school I have learned how to see my professor as more than only a statue holding a book, like I used to do in High School. In one of our World Literature discussions about “Snow,” the book written by Orhan Pamuk, we were commenting about the cliche’s of the Islam culture according to our American perspective when the comment was made, “It is different when you put someone's face in the story, someone like our new Middle Eastern friends” John said. Once again he was right. I replaced my professor's face and he became my friend, my travel buddy and my mentor. A whole new level of teaching and learning had begun since that day.
I was never ready for this adventure, my heart was afraid of failing. As a kid I gave up my dreams of traveling, but “God first”as we say in Costa Rica, John gave me the opportunity to believe in myself, to trust and face all my fears. It all started on August 16th when I was packing and getting ready for this trip when John came to my room and asked me if I had enough space to fit some of his stuff. “ I do,” I said. Even though I did not have any. My response was a result of his influence in my life already.
Finally how do you describe the scenery around you? How to capture the essence of the moment? In a public blog John writes about his experience on his way to Israel “My eyes just filled with tears as our bus made the last turn, revealing the most amazing canyon I have ever seen. Surrounded by Father's power and beauty, in a strange land of unknown tongues,where the Lord met with our forefathers in the faith” The journey continues as we move to our next destination. No matter were we will be in the next months, the words of love, kindness, wisdom, encouragement and knowledge will travel with us, in John until the the end of our lives.
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