Face to Face: The Globetrotter
I met my best friend Elise met in 2016 during our gap year as we embarked on a 9-month journey to explore our beautiful world. We’ve scuba dived together, learned about biofuel, made short films about local NGOs, stayed at alpaca farms, worked at an animation museum in Finland, and kayaked for 3 days in Panama together.
Elise is currently completing a semester abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, as part of her post-secondary studies in Political Science. After several conversations with Elise, I realized that she had many stories worth sharing with the world. Perhaps, one of the most prominent ones being about what it means to study abroad for long periods of time.
It is not uncommon for students to be intrigued by educational programs abroad, and embark to different parts of the world for semesters and summer courses to learn about different cultures, institutions, or languages. However, the decision to plan a long-term journey requires a lot of mental, emotional, and financial preparation.
Elise’s motivations to go abroad come from her own roots. Having a Peruvian mother and an American father, Elise has been exposed to diverse cultures and perspectives to life since childhood. But it wasn’t until her gap year program that she realized the important life lessons that could stem from the intensity of traveling for extensive periods of time.
“After completing my gap year, I realized how much I could learn from challenging myself. And when it came to studying abroad as part of my academic studies, I couldn’t wait to blend what I had learned in school with the exposure I was gonna receive abroad.”
Nevertheless, her decision to go to Buenos Aires wasn’t deliberate. Having had early interactions with Spanish and South American contexts, Elise felt like she could make the most out of understanding this area of the world in depth.
Besides challenging herself whenever she’s abroad, safety is an important aspect that has dictated Elise’s ability to to explore and make friends in different countries. Besides practicing her Spanish, she was certain that she would fit in.
“When you’re trying to expand what it means to ‘belong’ and feeling at home, you also have to think about similarities between who you are and the place you seek to learn and listen from.”
After talking about the idea of exploring and fitting into a culture that she believed related to her personality, questions around responsibility and ethics resurged. Understanding your positionality and the ethics of interfering with local processes is also of relevance when it comes to traveling and crafting new routines. Going to a different country goes beyond your own personal growth, it means that you will inevitably develop a responsibility towards your surroundings and the challenges around you.
Some strategies Elise has implemented in her time in Buenos Aires relate to consciousness and awareness.
“When you’re an expat, you have a lot of responsibility. Not only because you’re taking resources from the place you’re going to, but because even unconsciously, you’re bringing your own influences and ideas.”
When you travel outside of your home country, you learn many things about yourself, because you will end up in situations you have never found yourself in before. But being able to acknowledge these new experiences and relating them to your academic background will help you expand your horizons and perspectives.
Day to day activities such as intercultural interactions can be different when you’re in another country, even more so if you’re not as comfortable being yourself in a different language.
In Buenos Aires, Elise has experienced challenges connecting with people, because to her, humor is central to approaching people and sparking a conversation. However, the inability to use humor the same way in English and Spanish, has taught her new forms to connect with individuals.
“It’s easier to listen than to talk when you don’t speak the same language. At first, not being able to have a dynamic conversation with people was challenging, but then I realized how much you can learn by just absorbing stories; I managed to connect at levels I had never experienced before.”
These new strategies to communicate interculturally, and develop your expression as a human being through new mediums, can be expanded through long-term travel experiences. Your understanding of the world evolves and deepens once you can share your time with unknown individuals who have unique experiences of their own.
Lastly, Elise reflects on her growth as a traveler and global citizen, acknowledging her privilege and willingness to learn.
“Traveling is something that definitely comes with having the privilege to go abroad. However, there are many ways to experience this growth, and making the effort to turn exploring for growth as a priority will teach you a lot about your place in the world.”
To Elise, traveling has allowed her to grasp ideas from other people more clearly. By understanding her privilege as a tool to listen to people and empathize with their stories, she seeks to take these voices back to her university and connect individuals.
University campuses are buzzing with opportunities to have pertinent discussions around world issues and differing perspectives. However, not every campus is able to cultivate an environment where listening is prioritized, and uncomfortable conversation can be engaged in
Having meaningful traveling experiences is crucial at a personal level, but if much of what you have learnt from your time abroad can’t be discussed in your usual networks, then knowledge can’t be shared with others, and their personal perspectives can’t be challenged and widened.
“My university has a very heterogeneous group of students. Not everyone can or is willing to travel internationally and experience the intensity of growing within unknown limits. To me, bringing these diverse stories and perspectives back to my university is a way of starting a dialogue and promoting growth among groups.”
Elise feels that if study abroad semesters are an activity supported and promoted by educational institutions, then before even sending students abroad, the campus environment should e promote the beauty of diversity and inclusion.
“If students are expected to go abroad and learn more, subcultures shouldn’t be separated within campus, or else how do you expect your students to approach a whole country?”
She hopes to bring back her experiences and ideas to spark dialogue around inclusivity within her own university campus. Though she feels strongly that everyone should pursue international travel experiences, she emphasizes that the most important step to learning is to share your stories and create new spaces for discussion so that everyone can reflect on their own experiences and learn from that of others.
Daniela Mallarino
This article is a “Face to Face” feature, an online Arts and Life event that allows young writers to spotlight the people in their lives that they want to share with the world.
Check out all of the posts in this series at: https://home.blnkpage.org/category/artslife/
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Please note that opinions expressed are the author’s own. They do not necessarily reflect the views and values of The Blank Page.
