challenges strike— like the time I took part in the fight against human trafficking and found myself in a dangerous situation in a foreign country.
On the surface, opening a bottle cap with my nondominant hand and fighting human trafficking have little in common, but they are, in fact, related. It’ s the cumulative effect of small things that yield big results. By practicing twisting bottle caps with my weaker hand or by always taking the stairs, I learned that I could do what my mind naturally wants to resist.
After watching the movie Taken, which is about an ex-CIA officer who tracks down two teenage girls kidnapped by human sex traffickers, I started researching the issue and learned that millions of people are trafficked for forced sexual exploitation.
I discovered that dozens of nonprofit organizations worldwide were involved in the fight, but I knew I wanted to act, not just donate. I spent six months calling and emailing these organizations; most ignored me. They probably thought I was crazy for offering to help since I had no background in law enforcement.
The few that did respond said they had fulltime, trained people who do this. But just as I was about to give up, one organization emailed me and said they were interested. I investigated them and they investigated me, and before long, I found myself on a team of five men between the ages of eighteen and fifty-five, traveling to a country in Asia with plans to take out a human trafficking ring.
I found myself in a country I’ d never been to with four other men I’ d never met, aiming to fight with little training a human crisis I had only recently learned about. Our mission was to find underage girls forced into sex work and free them from traffickers.
I was nervous and deeply uncomfortable. I had never been in a situation remotely like
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