I am a traveler, but I am also a student a Gonzaga University. For the last year, I’ve been traveling the world. I’ve been happy, meeting new people and exploring new cultures while staying in run-down hostels and eating basic meals. I’ve lived in five countries last year and became a traveler. I’ve always wanted to be a traveler and now I finally am. However, it has been engrained in me that I must also be a college student. I chose Gonzaga University and I’ve realized that, even though I was always told I needed to go to college, I actually want to be here. I think Gonzaga will give a girl who has no idea what she wants to do with her life a lot of options and opportunities for figuring that out. But how can I be a traveler who explores that …show more content…
I immediately texted my best friend from my travels, Olivia, to see what I should do. I want to be a traveler and I want to be the person I am when I’m traveling, but that person has no place as a student at Gonzaga University. Olivia suggested that I write about it and read over my journals that I wrote while I was traveling. It helped for a little bit, but I still don’t know how to balance my two identities. I hope this is a temporary feeling, but I am also worried that it might not …show more content…
I love meeting people with different views and experiences than me and learning from them. I love learning how different cultures work. I love waking up early to watch the sunrise with my friends or cooking dinner on a budget with them. I loved who I was when I was traveling. I loved the progress I made on myself and who I am. But all good things must come to an end. My parents always told me that we needed to go to college. I am lucky enough that my parents can afford for me to attend college, so I shouldn’t waste that opportunity. But I have come to realize I want to be receiving a college education. I don’t know what I want to do with the rest of my life, and college is probably the best place to try and figure that out. I believe that being a student at Gonzaga is also who I’m meant to be. I feel like it is expected of me, being nineteen and part of an upper middle-class family, that I am a college student. It is less expected of me, even surprising, that I am a traveler. But if you asked me what I want to do when I grow up, I would tell you anything where I could continue to travel. Traveling is what I want to do with my life. At the same time, college is important to me and I want to be a college student. Hopefully soon, I will be able to figure out how to meld my two identities together so that I can have the best aspects of both a Gonzaga University student and a
As the fall semester of my Junior year is coming to an end I have realized I have grown as a global citizen and an academic student. I accomplished growing in both areas through field trips we have taken this semester. We have gone to two field trips as an eleventh grade class. One was to the movie theaters, and the other was college trips. The trips allowed me to grow in different ways.
While I wish finding my way around the school was my only problem, I was faced with some internal challenges. As the school year started, my friends slowly started to leave to these “big shot” colleges or simply move away to other community colleges. I, too, wanted the complete “college experience” somewhere in Arizona or across the country; yet I felt stuck and unaccomplished. I also felt jealousy which could have been because I did not get to decorate my dorm room.While talking about dedicating hard work to your education, Gina Rodriguez said “Just remember, during those times of fear and doubt, that you are right now discovering your true strength.” And in those times of doubt, I reminded myself why I could not just move and leave everything behind. The root of my challenges and concerns are my family. As I enrolled as a full time student, my family was fighting some financial problems which created marriage troubles for my parents. I could not leave at a time like this. I knew it was not the first time my parents were talking divorce but somehow I knew it was best to stay. I got financial aid from the school which saved me the fuss of asking my parents for money. It really meant so much to not put another worry on their
Getting ready to leave for college is often one of the most difficult times for a young adult. Many people are not ready to take that next step into their future. However, this past summer, as I approached my senior year, I was lucky enough to take a trip up the coast of California to go to a National Student Leadership Conference and prepare for that life changing experience. This camp was based on medicine and health care. I received a chance to work with professional doctors and examine what a life in medicine would be like. It was, by far, the greatest experience of my life, and it has definitely formed me into the person I am today. Before this camp, I knew I was not ready to proceed with that next step in my life. But now, I know I am more responsible and knowledgeable to go to college on my own.
Growing up in Midwest America, there is not much to look at. The trees, fields of grass, rolling hills, and small towns offer a dull environment for a teenager. There are hardly any monuments, sculptures, or architectural feats to gaze at in admiration. Ultimately, the Midwest appears very mundane. This monotonous landscape seems to push the idea of a typical lifestyle of conformity; one that customarily consists of attending school, finding a career, and settling down with a family. To fully procure an awareness and acceptance of different lifestyles, one must travel. Whether from town to town or on the other side of the planet, traveling allows a person to see the different cultures, beliefs, and beauties that make up our world; I believe in traveling.
Coming out of my senior high school was one of the most difficult tasks I 've been given up to this point in my life. I was overwhelmed, excited, sad, busy, and uncertain of the near impending future. The past 13 years of my life I had been studying, practicing, playing, and working my way towards a brighter future. I could see the future in front of me, it was as if I could reach out and touch it. It was almost like getting a shot at the doctors, I knew it was what was best for me but I was terrified anyway. But I pushed aside my fears and on August 8, 2015, I set foot on a college campus, my home for the next four years. I knew why I was there though; I came to college in order to channel the love I have for my country into the motivation necessary to take the next step up the ladder towards a constitutional law degree, a degree I’ll use to protect this country and the people who reside in it. But to truly understand why I came to college, I have to start at the beginning.
In Vietnamese proverbs, we have this saying :" A day one goes, a sea of knowledge he earns". By this time, I have realized how true it is. Last year, I was an exchange student in a high school in Mississippi. That was the first time I went overseas. Although, before this trip, I was quite used to living independently because I had to live without my mom for almost 7 years during the time she went to work in Poland. However, my first trip abroad was something totally new and different. A very different country and her people first met me. I gradually got used to everything and felt that those adaptations I had made also came with growth in my maturity.
In the nineteenth century, it seemed impossible to circumnavigate the world in only eighty days. That, however, was exactly what Phileas Fogg did in Jules Verne’s Around the World in Eighty Days. This novel follows the journey of the eccentric Englishman, Phileas Fogg, after he bet he could race around the world in eighty days. Accompanied by his faithful servant, Passepartout, and a scheming detective, Fix, he encountered many challenges he had to overcome in order to return in time to win the bet. In Around the World in Eighty Days, Jules Verne demonstrated how increased industrialization made a profound impact in travel, technology, and business. In addition, Verne shows how industrialization contributed to an increase of nationalism and European imperialism.
Getting prepared and ready to explore something new is just minor compared to the actual adventure for a senior anticipating the departure of their school trip. I was a member along with 30 other classmates of the co-curricular group called Business Professionals of America, a club organized through our school. Our teachers, club officers, and all of the members had been planning and fundraising for our trip to New York City for months. The excitement grew more and more as each day got closer to take off. All of us were anixious to see The Empire State Building, "Ground Zero," a Broadway play, and the spectacular views of gorgeous ocean sunsets. We had all been told and were aware of the different surroundings of the environment, or culture we would be experiencing when we arrived. Different cultures are common throughout the world, even in different places around the United States. Going on a trip to explore New York City really made the differences in cultures aware to me.
Katharine Butler Hathaway once said, “A person needs at intervals to separate from family and companions and go to new places. One must go without familiars in order to be open to influences, to change.” In doing this, I broadened my horizons and changed my outlook on life. Now, as I move on to college, I am leaving my family and friends again to educate and better myself so that I am prepared to walk down any path on the road of life.
Bouchaud, Andrea. "Transitioning Into Life Abroad." Weblog post. The Study Abroad Blog. N.p., n.d. Web. 26 Feb. 2014.
College is going to start my own life on a foot that is ready to leap because my career is going to take off right out of the gate. All-in-all I’m going to college for three main reasons. My immediate family is a reason because I want them to be proud of me for doing something right for once. My future family is also one because it’s a big part of my life that I want to be happy and always feel comfortable. Finally for my personal financial well-being, so I can be able to treat myself to all the luxuries I want for myself. Going back to line one, all of these things are a part of my future. Isn’t that what college is for after all, to prepare people for their own futures and what they bring? A university is not my future, it’s only the beginning of it.
College is an exhilarating time, especially for the students at the University of Iowa. Young adults are finally out of the house and given the freedom to do whatever, whenever. They have the option of going to new places and staying out late, all without the need of parental consent. This is the time for discovering new interests, meeting new people, learning, and finding oneself. College may sound like the perfect place, however, not everyone is excited for this change. Many students struggle adapting to this new environment full of choices. Not only are they having to leave their families that they have lived with for the past eighteen years, but they are also having to leave behind their homes, pets, schools, and friends. To top it all
When I first found out that I had been approved to intern abroad in Italy, I was very excited and couldn’t wait to tell my family and friends. But a few days later it hit me that I would be traveling to a country where I knew no one, all by myself. Not to mention the fact that I was already scared of planes. But after talking it out with my mom I realized that not everyone gets the chance to live in a different country and gain the experience of working abroad. I remembered when I first found out that I was accepted to Salisbury and the fear that I had in moving to a city on my own where I knew no one. I took the chance and moved in with three strangers who I now call my friends, taking the risk paid off big time and I knew that taking a bigger risk in a foreign country had the chance of paying off even more. Throughout my classes in Salisbury I slowly learned that taking chances in my projects and papers seemed to work out better than playing it safe. I also learned to be more independent in both life and in my classes. I found myself feeling more comfortable raising my hand and sharing my opinions, which is something I had rarely felt confident enough to do throughout high school and community college. I saw growth in my participation specifically in the three classes I took with professor Burton and three that I took with professor Moeder. My first semester in Salisbury I had Intro to Comm with Burton and I was still uncomfortable and a lacking confidence when it came to participation, but little by little I began to feel better discussing my opinions and knowing that in his classes I would not be judged for what I say. In Moeder’s classes, specifically Dramatic Writing, I learned that trying something that you never thought that you would be good at can turn out to be something you really
There is nothing quite like traveling, going someplace new and finding out more about the world and yourself. Anyone can become a traveler it just takes a little bit of faith and courage. Traveling across the world or even across the country is a learning experience. When you are a traveler you see how people live and how different cultures work. It is the best educational experience you could give yourself. You see how the world works in a way no one can teach you. Seeing different cultures and people help build the person you want to be. If you are a traveler the world influences you, because when traveling, you see the good and the bad, and you learn from the right and the wrong. I am very lucky that I am able to be a traveler and see this
At the start of my undergraduate education, I was taken aback by what I had ahead of me. Now finally out of high school, a bevy of opportunities suddenly sprang themselves upon me. I was faced with the questions of what classes to take, what to study, what to participate in, how to fend for myself, how to accomplish my goals, and countless others. After struggling with these monumental questions, I realized that, in fact, nothing had changed. I was still the same person I had always been, only now presented with much more opportunity and room to grow. Thus, rather than continuing to flounder in grandiose thought, I began to experience what only a university can offer, by embracing the infinite potential presented to me.