The KC Three

Emily Pickerill, Meher Talib, and Rachel Markowitz

I didn't plan on meeting people from Kansas City in Morocco. Usually we find each other there where we grew up and sometimes meet in Dallas or other big cities in the U.S. But this year, the Fulbright program has three research fellows from the same place: Johnson County, Kansas!!

I met Meher and Emily in our first days in Morocco this past fall and it took us some time to realize that we were connected. Soon we discovered that we went to neighboring high schools- Emily went to St. Thomas Aquinas, Meher to Blue Valley North, and I attended Shawnee Mission South- a perfectly well-rounded exemplar of the high quality education offered in JoCo.

But the connections run deeper than neighborhoods and mutual friends; they are as deep as family and home-grown pies. Meher and I worked together at Tippin's Restaurant and Pie Panty at the same time without meeting back in 2004. And Emily and I are related! My dad's cousin is Emily's great-aunt by marriage, so we're distant cousins.

We had to travel thousands of miles to meet, and it was well worth it. It's an amazing realization for me that as the world grows smaller, our home communities remain connected. And it's heartwarming to know that no matter where our next journies take us, I will always have some "Moroccan" friends coming home to Kansas.