"Graduation is only a concept. In real life every day you graduate. Graduation is a process that goes on until the last day of your life. If you can grasp that, you'll make a difference." ~Arie Pencovici
This past week/weekend has been a little tough for me. I hear and read about all the fun times my fellow seniors are having celebrating the end of time as undergrad's at Syracuse University. Today was the general commencement with speaker Joe Biden (as I've mentioned before...) and it's bittersweet that I could not join them. Yet, when I found the quote above I realized that I don't need a ceremony to show or tell me that I am graduating...especially since in reality I don't actually graduate until I'm finished here in July. As I study abroad here in this amazing city of Santiago, I've beginning to see that each day I spend here is teaching me something that I will never forget. It's teaching me to be a person who appreciates everything that I've come from, to appreciate the U.S. and its advantages it has granted me thoughout my life. Living as an exchange student in a host family, I am allowed the privilege of walking in the shoes of another culture.I am slowly understanding international affairs, the persective of another country on my own, and so many other things I can't yet put words to.
Friday our program had a workshop in which we got to share all of our cultural experiences, good and bad, with one another and our directors. Most people agreed that it is extremely difficult to find chilean friends as they have tight circles, and even hard to spend time with their chilean families for various reasons. Everyone misses family and friends back home more than they ever imagined, and often feel sad/lonely as a result. This is what our directors explained to us was part of the culture shock, especially since we are here for almost 5 months. It's hard to deal with so much change for so long when there is nothing familiar to cling onto. However, we've done a good job of keeping in touch with one another and taking time out from our chilean families when need be. It's all part of the learning process that in the end, we will look back on and be grateful for.
Happy Mothers Day, and...
To all my fellow grads: "All that stands between the graduate and the top of the ladder is the ladder." Let's go conquer the world!
