The thought occurred to me in class this morning that I did not post a single blog entry for the entire month of September. Which is bad, because ever since I've started writing in this blog, I've written something at least once a month. And I broke that record. I am too lazy to calculate how many months have passed since August 2013, and apparently also too lazy to have thought to write even a few words for September.
BUT, as I have already been doing, I could always just change the date. Which I will do. I will set it specifically to September 17th, because on September 17th I gave this speech at a weekly event in my house called Cabot Sharing. Rakesh, our faculty dean, had asked me if I could do a piece on study abroad. So I said sure.
"Study abroad" is a very broad topic, so I was wondering what exactly about it I would say. I did come up with something eventually, so here is the speech that I gave at Cabot Sharing that evening.
Hi everyone. It’s me again, the person harassing Cabot Open with study abroad emails and your resident student advisor for study abroad. I’m here this evening to share a few thoughts on how the experience has impacted me as well as a few important lessons I’ve learned from it.
Long story short, I spent last semester studying abroad in Rwanda and Uganda doing a program in conflict resolution and peace studies. As someone who’s kind of gained the reputation of traveling everywhere on Harvard’s dime and somehow making a new life for myself wherever I went, I had believed myself to be capable of creating a home for myself no matter where in the world I chose to live for a while. While this is true in some respects, after my time abroad this year, I’ve gained a new and more nuanced understanding of the word “home.”
After spending five semesters at Harvard, I had gotten pretty used to the routine I had here. Going to class, commuting from the quad, making plans with friends to meet up over a meal and having a shameful amount of these plans fall through. People who love to travel often talk about wanting a break from the routine in order to feel refreshed because the routine can be stifling, which is true, but when I left my life at Harvard I realized how much I had taken this routine for granted when I tried to adjust to a vastly different life in Rwanda. For instance, instead of taking the Quad shuttle and running into my friends, I was suddenly confronted with motorcycle taxis where I would spend a ride with a stranger driving crazy fast, and instead of red spiced chicken from the dhall I found a new favorite in fries with special Rwandan hot sauce served during cheap lunch buffets in roadside eateries.
However difficult it was to get used to a new routine, I learned that eventually the new place becomes a part of you, and little moments–whether they are part of the routine or part of a special experience–all become a part of your life story. My good Cabot friend Michelle spoke of walking through narrow, empty streets in the medina of Rabat in Morocco and skinny dipping at midnight in bioluminescent water in Ha Long Bay in Vietnam as moments that stood out to her during her time abroad. As for me, I often think of the time I went on safari with my study abroad group and how warthogs visited our campsite later that day, as well as when I watched the sunset over the landscape of a thousand hills that Rwanda is known for while eating from a jar of Nutella.
While it is important to take special experiences and routines to heart, I like to think it’s even more important to take note of the serendipitous occurrences as a reminder of how everything is somehow connected. Another Cabot friend, Alexis, shared a story that embodies that perfectly. While she was in Amsterdam, she spent a few weeks feeling pretty lost as to why she was studying abroad. The gloomy weather wasn’t making her feel much better, but on the first sunny day in a while, she sat down on the grass in a park, closed her eyes, and rested a while feeling a lot of gratitude as the sun shone on her skin. When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was a young girl riding by on her bike in a Harvard sweatshirt, and at that moment she was reminded of how lucky she was to be part of this community that she found here.
Alexis’ story resonated with me a lot, and when I finally returned to Harvard and to Cabot after being away for almost nine months I couldn’t help but think that this was the happiest I’ve ever been to return. Although I did manage to adapt to a new routine in the places I lived in throughout this year and they will always be a part of me, and although little things I live through here will remind me of things from abroad, I learned to think of home as a sense of collective experiences you gain throughout life that you can never truly leave behind, no matter where you go.
That being said, if a life-changing experience is something you’re looking for, study abroad is definitely something to give you one in ways beyond what you could have hoped for as well as in ways you couldn’t have expected. I can’t tell you what kinds of things might change your life if you choose to go abroad, since they are going to be uniquely yours, but one thing is for sure: you gain a deeper appreciation for the people and places you call home once you return.
Apparently, Rakesh was a huge fan and told the Office of International Education during their staff meeting about how much he liked it, so our supervisor asked me to give the speech again during our student advisor meeting at the end of September. Yeah. I figured it'd be a nice piece to put on this blog eventually so I'm glad I remembered.
BUT, as I have already been doing, I could always just change the date. Which I will do. I will set it specifically to September 17th, because on September 17th I gave this speech at a weekly event in my house called Cabot Sharing. Rakesh, our faculty dean, had asked me if I could do a piece on study abroad. So I said sure.
"Study abroad" is a very broad topic, so I was wondering what exactly about it I would say. I did come up with something eventually, so here is the speech that I gave at Cabot Sharing that evening.
Hi everyone. It’s me again, the person harassing Cabot Open with study abroad emails and your resident student advisor for study abroad. I’m here this evening to share a few thoughts on how the experience has impacted me as well as a few important lessons I’ve learned from it.
Long story short, I spent last semester studying abroad in Rwanda and Uganda doing a program in conflict resolution and peace studies. As someone who’s kind of gained the reputation of traveling everywhere on Harvard’s dime and somehow making a new life for myself wherever I went, I had believed myself to be capable of creating a home for myself no matter where in the world I chose to live for a while. While this is true in some respects, after my time abroad this year, I’ve gained a new and more nuanced understanding of the word “home.”
After spending five semesters at Harvard, I had gotten pretty used to the routine I had here. Going to class, commuting from the quad, making plans with friends to meet up over a meal and having a shameful amount of these plans fall through. People who love to travel often talk about wanting a break from the routine in order to feel refreshed because the routine can be stifling, which is true, but when I left my life at Harvard I realized how much I had taken this routine for granted when I tried to adjust to a vastly different life in Rwanda. For instance, instead of taking the Quad shuttle and running into my friends, I was suddenly confronted with motorcycle taxis where I would spend a ride with a stranger driving crazy fast, and instead of red spiced chicken from the dhall I found a new favorite in fries with special Rwandan hot sauce served during cheap lunch buffets in roadside eateries.
However difficult it was to get used to a new routine, I learned that eventually the new place becomes a part of you, and little moments–whether they are part of the routine or part of a special experience–all become a part of your life story. My good Cabot friend Michelle spoke of walking through narrow, empty streets in the medina of Rabat in Morocco and skinny dipping at midnight in bioluminescent water in Ha Long Bay in Vietnam as moments that stood out to her during her time abroad. As for me, I often think of the time I went on safari with my study abroad group and how warthogs visited our campsite later that day, as well as when I watched the sunset over the landscape of a thousand hills that Rwanda is known for while eating from a jar of Nutella.
While it is important to take special experiences and routines to heart, I like to think it’s even more important to take note of the serendipitous occurrences as a reminder of how everything is somehow connected. Another Cabot friend, Alexis, shared a story that embodies that perfectly. While she was in Amsterdam, she spent a few weeks feeling pretty lost as to why she was studying abroad. The gloomy weather wasn’t making her feel much better, but on the first sunny day in a while, she sat down on the grass in a park, closed her eyes, and rested a while feeling a lot of gratitude as the sun shone on her skin. When she opened her eyes, the first thing she saw was a young girl riding by on her bike in a Harvard sweatshirt, and at that moment she was reminded of how lucky she was to be part of this community that she found here.
Alexis’ story resonated with me a lot, and when I finally returned to Harvard and to Cabot after being away for almost nine months I couldn’t help but think that this was the happiest I’ve ever been to return. Although I did manage to adapt to a new routine in the places I lived in throughout this year and they will always be a part of me, and although little things I live through here will remind me of things from abroad, I learned to think of home as a sense of collective experiences you gain throughout life that you can never truly leave behind, no matter where you go.
That being said, if a life-changing experience is something you’re looking for, study abroad is definitely something to give you one in ways beyond what you could have hoped for as well as in ways you couldn’t have expected. I can’t tell you what kinds of things might change your life if you choose to go abroad, since they are going to be uniquely yours, but one thing is for sure: you gain a deeper appreciation for the people and places you call home once you return.
Apparently, Rakesh was a huge fan and told the Office of International Education during their staff meeting about how much he liked it, so our supervisor asked me to give the speech again during our student advisor meeting at the end of September. Yeah. I figured it'd be a nice piece to put on this blog eventually so I'm glad I remembered.
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