Hey readers, we finally made it to university, who would’ve thought. Hopefully we’ve all settled in nicely over the past few weeks. During these weeks our class has been a melting pot of ideas, cultures, and personalities. Hundreds of different backgrounds being funneled into this tube of learning we call CAP.

For me, CAP, and the Global Citizen stream has been fascinating. Learning about what a Global Citizen “could” be and trying to figure out what it “should” mean are not only great questions for this year, but a question that everyone should ask themselves. To me being a Global Citizen means that you understand that the world is much more complicated than the life we live. Personally I’ve been raised in a bubble, sheltered from racism, poverty and most of the ugly realities of the world. I come from an Asian American family in Hawaii, and my unique Interpretive Community has given me a unique outlook on the world. It isn’t inherently better or worse, and nobody’s background is, but it is something that makes me me, and being able to accept what makes other people themselves is an integral part of being a Global Citizen.

The CAP stream is an amazing opportunity, it gives us students at UBC the opportunity to really mix and get to know people on a better level. Through this Global Citizen stream I’ve already been able to meet people who’ve helped better my view of the world. One of the first friends I’ve made, Baris, is from turkey, and in his blog he writes what it’s like to come from Turkey to Canada. Talking to Baris outside of class I’ve learned a lot about the “Refugee Crisis” and got a whole new perspective that is really going to make my opinion on the subject much more well rounded. Talking to Baris you’ll learn about the homelessness that emerged in his city, the jobs being taken, and all of these aspects that hit a lot closer to home coming from a real, palpable source.

Learning about new cultures, and trying to understand them is something that CAP is going to give us the opportunity to do each and everyday. However, when we go back to it all we find ourselves asking, why do I want to learn, what’s the point? Joseph’s blog really brought it home on that topic. Joseph talks about how most of the information in the world is already known, and it is a little disheartening at some points, but that’s how life is, however he wraps it up nicely saying, “Many if not all mountains have been climbed. But there is value and joy in getting there, regardless of who has reached it before we have, and in getting there we’re able to give it a new voice.” Its so exciting to see the mindset that people have going into the school year, and it’s even more exciting to think about how they’ll change by the end.

We’ve got a lot going on in these first couple of weeks, during the reading of the academic article, “The Role of Interpretive Communities in Remembering and Learning” by Farhat Shazad we came across a lot of interesting topics and ideas, but we are also learning how to write a paper in that same style. An interesting perspective on the book was Magda’s; In Magda’s blog she writes about the reading and what her take wahttp://blogs.ubc.ca/astu100barisuzel/s on it. Her and I are similar in the way that we find it “hard to gain insight on such an event such as the War on Terror because I myself have not experienced that kind of emotional trauma.” Coming to university we are exposed to all of this knowledge that we haven’t yet seen and it’s sometimes difficult to be as empathetic as I’d like to be. Magda also talks about memories, and it was really interesting. She talked about challenging ideas. She even linked an article about women wrongfully accused of having terrorist affiliation because of how people perceived Muslims after September 11^th.

We all come from different places, and we all want to learn about new things. Our cultures, passions, fears, strength and everything else make us the individuals that we are. We’ve gotten to that point because of the people and experiences that we’ve encountered in our lives, all of which are unique. We’ve migrated to the beautiful campus of UBC and are now part of each other’s “Interpretive Community”. We have people from all over the globe who will undoubtedly bring a new lens for use to view the world from. Whether it’s learning about the media in Mexico through Gabriel, or hearing a first person account of the Syrian refugee crisis from Baris, I’m so excited to further my learning with all of you, and can’t wait to see where this school year takes us. Thanks for reading, talk to you soon!

• Kennedy