By Jane Buckley
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[dropcap]I[/dropcap] never saw myself as a door enthusiast before traveling to Morocco. I don’t see myself as a door enthusiast after traveling to Morocco. But I think that’s just because back at home I don’t find many doors to be enthusiastic about.
It wasn’t just that they were nice to look at or interesting to research–I’m no architecture expert and I don’t feel particularly hip to the history of doorways. But I realized I was so drawn to doors on this trip because they seemed indicative of our whole experience: they were bright, surprising and welcoming, as were the people we met on our trip. They represented the hospitality we received at every turn–like the ex-women’s national soccer team player who took us to break Ramadan fast (as if we hadn’t eaten two full meals already that day, shamefully incapable of operating on no food or water) with her and her friends; or the Salé native who took 30 minutes out of her day to lead us through the maze of streets in the medina to find our hotel despite our language barrier. Acknowledging fully the cheesiness of saying this, there was something metaphoric about doors and their role as a portal between homes and the outside world, and how a defining feature of our trip was feeling welcome even in the most foreign circumstances.
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Jane is a rising junior in JE. You can contact her at jane.t.buckley@yale.edu.