Now that my abroad experience has come to an end, I can undoubtedly say that personal identities have an impact on how one experiences the world. In my pre-departure blog post, I assumed that this was the case, but I had no idea to what extent this was true and in with facets of life this concept would come into play. While I already knew that someone’s (or my own) personal identity can afford both advantages and disadvantages in life, I was unsure as to how different experiences of life can be purely because of the culture that you come from. While having different governments seems like an obvious reason that people from different cultures would experiences life differently, there is no way to truly see how that is the case until you enter a different culture. Further, I did not realize how dramatically the media an effect a culture/ society until I went abroad. Even when watching commercials, ads, or looking at headlines, it becomes easier to understand how certain aspects of society are different solely because of the messages portrayed to the public through the media.
It was incredibly eye opening to see how people in Australia view America/ Americans because I started to understand how stereotypes and generalizations can become a reality, especially when you only encounter another culture from a distance. Upon arrival, some of the stereotypes of Americans were completely expected, yet, I must also say that some of the ideas and concepts that Australians assigned to the American lifestyle were truly mind blowing.
I think answering the question of what advantages or disadvantages does my culture afford me and vice versa is almost a trick question. I feel like this is a trick question because while I was able to submerge myself into a completely different culture and see America as well as Australia through their eyes, I was only seeing what I subjectively and personally assumed they would see. While this seems like a blatantly obvious point, I bring this up because if nothing else, while abroad I have learned that no matter how you (or I try) nothing you see will ever be anything other than your own perceptive (even when trying to understand someone else’s). Because of this realization, I think the biggest lesson I have learned from going abroad is that the more I learn, the more I realize how little I know. With every bit of information that I take in about the world, people, other cultures, and myself, the more I realize how little I know. With everything I learn, another door to the unknown is open and it is even more mysterious than the last door I opened.