Doha Dreams Comes to a Close

Well, it appears my time in Doha has come to a close. Four years and one month to the day from my arrival, I pack my bags to say goodbye to the sandy place I call home. It is amazing how quickly the time has passed and how much has changed. Students have come and gone, construction has begun and ended, I have learned and grown.

I came to Qatar in 2012 to work for the Qatar Foundation and Hamad bin Khalifa University. This incredible opportunity was made possible through the trust and support of Curt Kenoyer, Melissa Winter, and Ameena Hussain who continued to be a great support in my professional time here. In my four years I grew many of our programs in the HBKU Student Center, connected with many students from all over the world, and developed a new global professional identity that I am very proud of. This past year has been my most difficult professionally. Stuck between changes in organizational priorities and institutional mission, much of my work was left without a clear purpose or direction. When you enter an organization you hope to leave a positive legacy behind you and in my case many of the programs I built will not be continuing. With this in mind, my legacy will be the students I had the privilege of working beside. It was an honor to serve all of you and I hope you take many of the lessons we worked on together into your future endeavors!

Although I came to Qatar for work, it quickly became a home. Qatar is a unique blend of an open country, welcoming foreigners to help advance the nation, while at the same time maintaining tradition. I would be remiss to not thank Qatar for the amazing opportunity to learn about a different way of life, contribute to the future of a nation through education, and for the chance to benefit from a lifestyle I could not have dreamed of. As Qatar became home, so did my Doha family. Although many people have come and gone in my four years, it was these people who were there through all the bumps in the road to make it a home. It was also such a privilege to have so many friends and family visit over the years to get a glimpse of life here in the Gulf. To all those who made the trip out, it means the world to me!

Coming to Qatar was the opportunity of a lifetime, one that I tried to turn down (that’s a story for another time…). As I look back on these past four years I can’t believe everything that has happened. Of course there was the travel. There were backpacking trips through Southeast Asia, African safaris, the World Cup in Brazil, and so much more. But the most incredible opportunity of all was chasing the girl of my dreams in New Zealand. If it weren’t for being in Qatar, I probably wouldn’t have been able to chase love half way across the world. From the eight day first date to our wedding, Kristal has been the biggest part of my Doha experience and the person I get to carry on the rest of my life with.

As the Qatar chapter of our lives comes to a close, our next chapters are even more promising!!! 

Tomorrow we will be hopping on a plane to move to New Zealand for 10 weeks where I will be working at the University of Auckland in their Campus Life Office and Kristal will be working for the International Volunteering Head Quarters (https://www.volunteerhq.org/). After New Zealand we are planning to work on Semester at Sea’s Spring 2017 voyage (http://www.semesteratsea.org/). It is a journey that will take us to 10 countries in just over 4 months. And after that? The plan is to move back to the great state of Minnesota where we will both be job searching in the Twin Cities and working towards making our first home together.

There is quite a lot in store for the newest Witts and as the Qatar chapter closes, so does the Doha Dreams blog. Thank you to everyone who has kept up with my adventures these last four years. This has been the ultimate “amateur” blog but I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. As Kristal and I embark on our newest adventures we will be starting a new blog together called “At Our Witts End”. Be on the look out for that in the next few weeks! We promise it will be a heck of a lot better than Doha Dreams! Thanks for all the love and support and we will see you on Name of blog!!!!