Just Love from Paraguay

GSV’s motto is as follows: “Just Love”— short, simple, and to the point.


To “just love” someone, genuinely authentically with your whole being is not always so simple. It is easier said than done, especially in “extreme” cases like murderers or abusers or whatever labels you want to give it. To Just Love, every being you encounter is hard work. It takes discipline, reflection, commitment, and an open mind and heart, to say the least. To JUST LOVE is a life(s) long journey, walking, running, and stopping—infinitely. As I continue to walk, run, stop, go back, re-walk, re-run, stop again and go forward, I continue to be amazed about how capable, we beings are, in loving, in just loving. The thought of trying to share with you my experience here in Paraguay feels like I would need to write you a book in order to try to express maybe half of the intensity of what I’ve been a part and what I’ve felt over the past half year. So, to keep things “simple,” I will say I have experienced what it feels like to Just Love and to Just Be Loved and for that I am blessed. To JUST LOVE is what I like to call one of life’s “simple complexities.” 

In 2010, I was privileged to be a college student trying to make sense of how to live life outside of classes, ice cream, and soccer practice. The year after, as a 1^st year GSV, I was privileged to take an urban hop into the world of NYC’s 17^th street, Euphrasian Residence, a diagnostic-receptive center, a group home for girls 12-18 years old coming from extreme unjust situations of neglect, abuse and violence. As a 2^nd year GSV, I am privileged to “tiré un paso” into the world of Paraguay, South America, of tereré drinking, scorpion killing, bumpy road walking, bus squishing, ñanduti making, cumbia dancing, story telling, Spanish/Guaraní speaking, empanada making, and more. The past three years have been distinctively different from one another. 

Life is different for every person, everywhere, every day. I don’t know where I will be this time next year, but what I do know is that no matter where I am, no matter what I am doing, or who I am with, I will continue to try to understand what it means to JUST LOVE for what it has taught me so far is that it is the only thing that makes us all ONE. It is the only thing that binds all cultures, all religions, all races, all sizes, all shapes, all sexes, all genders, all sexualities, all education privileges and lack there of, and so on. I’m 23 years old and have a lot to learn, but I think if I can keep my head and my heart centered in this simple-complex GSV motto of “Just Love,” I’ll continue to solve life’s puzzle, peace by peace. 

by Jess Simonetti, Paraguay 2011-2012