this is going to be a really random post. i don’t get on here much because it’s not really my thing, but i need to write this down because it’s important.
the changes that semester at sea caused in me were palpable. i could articulate them, i had a sense of them, i could feel them as new, raw parts of me that had yet to be explored.. as the time goes by, i can feel them closing up. i am moving further and further away from the person that semester at sea made me, and that is a terrible thing. semester at sea opened my eyes to the world, yes, but also the the person that i am. perhaps its because SMU is such a harsh reality- everyone dresses and acts just the same, and to act any differently puts you outside the norm. the truth is that semester at sea broadened my perception of that was important in life.
i still firmly believe that those of us who are lucky enough to live as we do should feel the need to give back in some way. my way of doing this is to do international development work in whatever field will have me.
what has changed within me is the willingness to be myself regardless of what those around me tell me to be. on the ship it was easy to realize this and to stick to the truth of it. i believe my amazing friends had much more of a sense of this before semester at sea, but the communal allowance of being able to be oneself allowed everyone to grow closer as a group of friends who might not become so close on a home campus. at SMU its not so easy to be yourself, and semester at sea liberated that part of me.
semester at sea, and my friends there, also taught me to be less worried about the small things- to enjoy life as it comes and see the good in everything. every day last semester after we had left an overwhelming port we would discuss the negative aspects of course but also the amazing ones- the smiles on the children’s faces and the happiness of a supposedly impoverished people. the people were in poverty certainly, but in many cases they are greater lovers of life than the richest person back home in the U.S.
SAS created at atmosphere of learning, not just facts and figures but also for learning about oneself. i felt the security there to really think about what i was and what i wanted to be. i don’t want the revelations that i had about myself and my life to be something that slips away as time passes- i am determined to hold onto those feelings and make them a part of me forever. who i was on that ship is who i am meant to be, and being home will not change that.
my friends Molly Fleet, Meredith Voss, Haley Haertl, Jenna Meyer, Kelly Kennard, Cassie Catto, Marge Eldred, Lisa Pascuzzi, Kimberly O’Donnell, and Jenny Uphoff knew the real me, better than anyone of my friends at home did. i was able to change with them, and to grow with them. the bond that i have with these girls, i will have forever. we may not speak every day or even live in the same part of the country, but i will love them and consider them my best friends until the day i die.
maybe all of this is just sappy shit, but it is important. we need to recognize the changes within ourselves and work hard to ensure that we do not revert to what we were before- a fine person, yes, but not a changed one.
