Hey guys!
As I sit in my room on the eve of my departure, already in the early stages of the excited panic yet to come, I’m glad that I have taken the time to reflect on how my expectations and life so far can and will shape this new experience. With such reflection, its easy to see how our idea of our identity can shape how we experience and perceive the world. Having traveled abroad a couple times in the past, I am somewhat familiar with the shock that comes with seeing different names and designs on the products in stores, various slang words to refer to friends and scenarios, and how you fit into the grand scheme of social interactions. Being an American in Europe, I expect to get lots of questions about the social and political state of the US, whether or not people actually have guns everywhere, and the validity of every other stereotype they’ve heard. Being that I am going to Ireland, I expect to encounter lots of Irish and European people (duh) but also other study abroad students from the US and beyond. While I don’t want to make too many assumptions about the way others experience the world differently from me, I can imagine that their social, conversational, and even political experiences have been different from mine and therefore their opinions and ways of expressing themselves will also be different. Those who I meet from Europe will likely have some advantages in knowing more of the applicable history, how to use the currency more expertly, and probably have a better grasp of different social boundaries and colloquialisms.
Thinking back to both of these activities and looking forward to your study abroad experience, how does your identity impact how you see and experience the world? Does your identity afford you any advantages and/or disadvantages? What other identities do you expect to encounter abroad? How might the people you meet abroad experience the world differently from you? What advantages and disadvantages do you think their identities might afford them?