Throughout my time at Rollins, my experience as a college student has always felt quite different from that of my fellow peers. I still stand by the decision my parents and I jointly made to have me commute to school as opposed to paying an extra $7,000 per semester, but I will admit that it has definitely taken a toll on the extracurricular and social aspects of my experience as a student. I never really had the pleasure of walking down Park Ave and eating at lavish restaurants with my classmates after studying or going to catch a movie in the Winter Park village, not having to worry about being late to class, or driving too far. For many, Rollins has been a second home but for me, it’s felt more like a workplace. I wake up, take the Sunrail, go to class, workout, take the train back, and then I’m home. That has been the extent of my experience as a member of the Rollins community. That all changed last semester.
I believe it is a natural tendency for individuals to adopt a tribe mentality. For that very reason is why we witness tense sport rivalries, passionate brand loyalties, racism, school spirit, patriotism, and other manifestations of in-group social dynamics. Before studying abroad, my identity mainly consisted of being American, Catholic, Colombian, and a Rollins College student and I never really saw beyond those labels. Not that there was anything wrong with me identifying in such a manner but I simply never saw a reason for me to expand beyond those set definitions that I had given myself. After traveling to a multitude of countries across Europe and concluding my journey in the adventure that was Morocco, I’ve come to find my previously-established identity to shift to being that of a global citizen. Now it was no longer me and my group against the world. Now I was a part of the world, a member of the greater human family that has been there all along.
Now that I felt more connected to the world around me, I started to realize just how different my day-to-day life had become. I went from being in Orlando and driving from place to place to taking highly advanced public transport systems in the metropolitan sprawl of London. No longer did I feel like I was apart from my classmates. I lived in a shared apartment with them, ate at restaurants with them, traveled to different countries with them, went to the clubs with them, explored the city with them, got groceries with them, and hit the gym with them. This was the first time that I felt truly immersed into the college experience and I have been endlessly grateful for the opportunities that CAPA has granted to me. Despite the things that I felt like I lacked throughout college, I realized during my time abroad just how blessed I really am. After waiting three days for a pair of jeans to air dry, I realized just how fortunate I was to have a large washer and dryer at home. After many rainy and gray days, I realized just how fortunate I was to witness stunning Florida sunsets. After walking through Berber villages in the Atlas Mountains and witnessing the level of poverty some of them had to endure everyday, I realized just how fortunate I am to have been born and raised in such a fruitful and developed country like the great United States of America.
This semester I did not only change physical locations. My perspective visited a whole new world, an interconnected and dynamic world full of diverse peoples and experiences. A world where everyone has their unique qualities and beautiful differences. We may not all be born with the same circumstances but at the end of the day we all share the same human spirit and share this one blue marble in the vast expanse of the Universe that we call Home.