Soon to be Samoan

As I prepare for my next big adventure, I think it’s important to look back on where I come from, where I’ve been, and how those experiences have brought me to where I am going today. Or tomorrow, I suppose.

I grew up in a very small town in Maine. Boothbay Harbor. I think we have about five thousand year-round residents. My high school had about two hundred students. The elementary school wasn’t much bigger. I knew everyone’s first and last name, what their parents did for work, and most of the time which house they lived in. There was such a community. My neighborhood got together on Sunday’s for barbeques. If someone in the town got sick or injured, we’d have a fundraiser for them. Looking back on it now, I think that degree of cooperation and love is beautiful. At the time, I wanted nothing more than to get away. So I did. To England, to Germany, to Denmark, to Florida.

I saved all the money I made each summer to be able to travel in the fall. At first, travel was an avenue. It was a way to get the heck out of my small rural town. Three weeks here or there, meeting up with some friends, taking some cute pictures. But I started to want more, so I spent a semester in Germany. After three months of culture, language, and delicious food, my perspective of travel was starting to change. I realized that while people are different in many ways, there are fundamental similarities of humanity. Love does not change. Having aspirations, dreams – those are universal as well. The differences within cultures and societies, in my opinion, is how those individual human beings choose to interact and view others. And what can sometimes be the biggest differences between cultures, is how a person views his/her self.

After peeking into these different societies, I have come to fully appreciate my own. Maine, and specifically Boothbay Harbor, are so close to my heart. But what has become even more important to me than the places, as I mentioned in my previous Uganda post, are the people. Community. Family.

As part of the study abroad training at Rollins, we were asked to identify ourselves with a few words. The first that came to mind were sister and love. Being a part of this crazy Baumm- Mitchell-Savastano family has been colorful, to say the least. But it is through the people I love that I define myself. Relationships, connections and communities are everything. They surround you, empower you, make you want to scream your head off, but force you into every range of human emotions, and that is a beautiful thing.

Taking these feelings of love and community into my semester in Samoa, I hope to learn how they view these same principles. What are the appropriate ways of developing relationships? What does community mean to them? I want to listen to their own personal experiences to understand their values better. Maybe they are itching to get out of their town and off their island like I once was. Or maybe their community is their world. These are the questions I ask when I travel to new places. I hope to understand how my values are interpreted in other cultures.

I don’t want to believe that humans are completely different from each other. And in that same breath, I can’t say I want us to be the same. I think where those differences and similarities come into play are within the choices that individual human beings make. Some may choose personal adventure over community and inclusivity. Regardless of the personal choices, human beings are influenced to make those decisions based on their community, culture, and/or religion. But at that core of choice, a choice fueled by emotion, I think human nature is fundamental – universal.