Categories
College Personal Self Discovery

disconnected dots

It’s been awhile since I wrote anything meaningful here. I find less reason to, now. I think I prefer to keep it to myself.

I also draw a blank when it comes to writing a new post. At the same time, I’ve been jotting more things down in my handy diary.

People ask me, what do you write in your diary? I think to myself, everything from quotes I like to books I’ve read to to-do lists which I love to self- affirmation statements, and smile and say, oh the usual.

I am more confident now, since I arrived back in Vancouver. I am more calm. I find myself stepping back and just being an observer, more and more. It’s made my piano playing more controlled. Perhaps I know more what it is that I am doing with my life. Or maybe I am just content with who I am. I know I have more faith in the approach I am taking to life.

I miss travelling. The conversations with strangers that either reaffirm who I thought I was or challenge who I always thought I was. I’ve become more like myself– I predicted I would, before I left. I think that in the midst of challenges, life experiences, and the stress of travelling alone, I could only hold onto the core of who I am… everything else I shed little by little in each community I visited.

I’m more ready to graduate than I thought I would be. Undergraduate studies is too broad and faceless for me. I want to do something more meaningful. I guess that’s the whole point of undergrad, anyway, to push you to figure yourself out. Some people already know– they don’t need the extra four years of school then I guess?

The city bothers me. But at the same time it’s my home, and so I love it. It’s a little like how family works, I think.

People also ask me how it is that I juggle everything I do at once. I like to say, I know I’d be so afraid of dropping any one of those things that I will push myself to my limits trying to juggle it. And I know that I will always push through; I always do.

There are some people I haven’t spoken to in such a long time, who have said important things to me when I needed it most. I doubt I will see them anytime in the near future. There are too many people around in my life. I’m thankful that there are two or three that have stuck by. In psychology we learn about how important community support is– It’s too bad that some people don’t realize this until it’s too late. Another note: I don’t try as hard (or even at all) to please other people anymore. What’s the point? I prefer to direct that energy to thinking about the people who need help in this world, wondering how it is that I can make myself one of those leaders who can make a change significant enough for those voiceless, nameless, faceless people in our world.

Also, I am afraid of falling.

Categories
Academic Personal

The world turns

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Hold structure,
don’t let life pass,
let yourself be free.
Cause your much more

——–

Last night as I was packing I felt waves of anxiety overcome the bubble of excitement that I’ve been living in for the past few weeks. Suddenly, it really, really, hit me: that I’ll be going away to another country that will have different norms and will be worlds and worlds away from home. Even though I’ll only be away for three months, the anxiety is still there. I’ve never travelled away from home myself. It’s a new experience, something full of personal challenges I may have to face on my own. I wonder, if I am feeling this anxiety, if that means I am learning already. In all our pre-departure sessions we learned to identify confused and uncomfortable moments as opportunities for learning. I know it won’t be easy. With each day drawing closer, I am more and more tentative, but this is normal, and I do know I need to take this step out before I can make any sense of where I am going with my degree.

I don’t know if there are other students who have experienced their education as I have… regarding it as a ‘responsibility’, imposed onto me by parents, cultural norms, or simply something that I pegged for myself since I was 6 years old because that was the expected goal for every good child. I am an avid learner and I love every moment I am a student. But, I can’t help but wonder if my experience as a student has been shallow up until this point. I haven’t felt many ‘aha’ moments in my years as a student. Have I even been following my heart? I don’t know who I am in that respect, yet. I really, sincerely, pray that my experience will be full of learning. About myself, at least.

I crave that discomfort that pushes me out of my comfort zone. I crave wisdom from those who have learned and felt from experience. I look forward to my conversations with students in Africa, because I am so sure they must learn differently from us. Not to create an ‘us versus them’ dichotomy, we are so careful to identify this now, but to really accept that cultures influence how education is delivered and shapes students. Most of all, I look forward to being away from home, and friends, and comfortable spaces… I anticipate the moments when I will be with myself, and the advice I give/take will really be my own, uninfluenced by the ideas and expectations that I may have habituated to.

I am so nervous. I found myself packing enough to last me for months and months on end and it shocks me how little I need. I am so, so, so sheltered. I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all. It’s allowed me to comfortably and safely learned the textbook material that has led me to this point where I will step out beyond the boundaries of B.C. which have defined how I’ve lived as a Vancouverite and a student… I want to be a global citizen, and not just on paper. I think I am nervous because I have no idea where this will lead me, so I am tentative. But, I am willing to take on any challenge. I have made a big deal out of this trip. It is a big deal. I will come home and read this and be able to compare. Perhaps I won’t change much. I hope that is not the case.

I want to let go and proclaim to the world, ‘I’m ready! Take me on! I will be your modelglobal citizen!’, but that would be naive, and reckless, and incredibly self centered of me. So I will keep the sentiment in heart and be as confident as I can possibly be, in who I am not what I know, and be respectful to all those I meet and work with in Africa so I can really learn and keep note of where I stand in this world.

——–

Words are words are words

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