I had never left the country before this summer when I went to Prague on a field study. I am so very thankful for Rollins and the opportunities it has provided me, and I am ecstatic to take on this next one. When I had to fill out my application and was asked about my identity, I thought it would be really easy and a fast thing to fil out, it ended up being the part of the application that took the most amount of time and thought. I have never really thought about my identity, as a straight, white, cis-gender, solidly middle-class, woman there has never been much judgment from others on the basis of my identity and so I never really had to think much about it. I know this proves my privilege and I am very grateful as I truly believe that if I did not have these identities, I would not be able to be going abroad at all. I was raised by and surrounded by people who are helping me to pay for this, and all other semesters and I would not be able to do this on my own.
On the form, I put “daughter” for one of my identities. I believe that this is the identity that has the biggest effect on me for this trip. I am very much my mother’s daughter; she is my role model and my biggest supporter. There is absolutely no way that I would be where I am in life without her. She has taken out loans for me to be able to go to school here at Rollins and is a very firm believer in education and opportunities for both me and my older sister. She and I have always been very close, and I have learned a lot from her throughout my life but what I think I have learned the most is how to learn. My mom is an educator and instilled a love of knowledge into me. While others have been talking about the cool landmarks I will see in London my mom and I have been talking about my classes and everything I will learn and experience and how different it’ll be from life here. She is so excited for me to go and experience new things, in fact, she is so excited that as I write this on the couch at home she is sitting a few feet away looking for flights to come visit me.
I am set to arrive in London on January 8th and as of today, I have all of my information including what classes I’m taking, my internship, and my housing. I will be taking two classes, “Shakespeare and London” and “A Post-War British Popular Culture,” my internship will be at OperaUpClose, and I will be living in Camden which is about 40 minutes away from the CAPA campus and about 20 minutes from my internship. Living in London for four months will be a very busy adventure and one I am so looking forward to.
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