Studying abroad is all about the learning experience, introducing yourself to new places and even new people. It's an adventure. Through this experience you learn the stories about the places you will be visiting and the people around you. During your stay abroad the people traveling with you become your family away from home. These are the people you go to for everything. You laugh, vent, cry and see the world together. For us, these same rules apply. We all started this trip as 12 strangers, well in some ways. We each knew at least a person or two but not all.
The Pleasantville and City campuses finally got to feel like one University. There are two students from the City campus and the rest are from Pleasantville, making eleven girls, one boy and three teachers. And we're always on the same page. We could all arrive to a city together, somehow separate and all meet up with each other to head back to home base at the same time without sending a text to one another or making a phone call. We often joke and say that we are study abroad goals.
But then something happened. On our sixth night abroad we went from sharing stories at dinner about Pace experiences and trying to find internships to personal real life stories. All of our eyes were opened to the similarities we had to one another that we hadn't known before. The dinner started with much laughter and ended with tears shed along with comforting. We had a break through.
Harper Lee once said,
"You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Climb inside of his skin and walk around in it".
At this dinner we heard stories and felt real emotions coming from behind the masks that cover our vibrant faces everyday. We went from formal introductions to lending a ear to listen and a shoulder to cry on in just a couple of days. Chemistry like this is hard to find in a group of very different individuals. We made it work and started or rekindled friendships and this trip will forever be remembered by both the students and the teachers.
Rest In Peace- Richard Kennedy, Loving father to Catherine Kennedy
Rest In Peace- Lauren McCormick, Best friend to Athena Cipully
Rest In Peace- Patricia Cipully, Step-mother to Athena Cipully
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone
This is beautiful and I completely agree. It's strange--but completely makes sense--how we became so close in such a short amount of time because of the experience. It's also necessary to have an open mind to be able to see things from another person's point of view, and it's really awesome that you were able to and then write about it in a way that's completely coherent.
ReplyDeleteI just got the chills while reading this. I'm truly going to miss our group and I hope that we can all remain friends because these relationships that were formed are hard to come by and being able to have heavy conversations like the ones we eventually had together aren't meant for everyone. Our group is so special and your post makes me reflect and makes me so grateful for getting to know everyone, including our own professors, on a deeper level.
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