Back to Reality

Living the dream and traveling the world. How quickly things change once we’ve returned to our home country and our responsibilities set in again.

Time in Germany with the other students was an experience that I will never forget. We were able to conquer communication barriers to discuss topics that could impact the world at large. Among these things were, globalization, developing economies, education, and decisions that should/could be made about immigration.

During our first day together while we hadn’t known one another very long, we were waist deep in heavy conversations that we all held values, thoughts, and opinions, so of which were conflicting. However, in my experience what I realized, while we all may have had different perspectives on the world at large, somehow or another it seemed as if we all wanted the same or similar things. We all seemed to want the best for people and one another but we were tasked with finding ways to work together in order to suggest how these things could happen.

Each day was a new experience and reality check. In conversations with others it was very easy to see how much I could take for granted. After speaking with students about their experience of fleeing their home country, to access to education, and other things, very quickly I was offered and had to accept a few humble pies. Now as I’ve returned to the U.S. I’ve been offered a new perspective through the experiences that I had with these other students from all over the world, but I also realize that the reality that I’ve returned to is not that of my other fellow students. How then will I respond knowing the conditions of the world elsewhere versus where I live in my community? I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences and new found knowledge with others.