Into the World.

Being a 19-year-old and having circumnavigated the world may sound ordinary to some people, but it definitely has a ring to it.

In 10th grade, I joined American Field Service and became an exchange student in the United States. I lived in Seattle for a year and became part of an American family who was once strangers to me, but now has gained a very special place in my heart that my own family never has.
It was a life-changing experience. Nothing compares to experiencing other cultures than doing it with your own eyes, minds, and heart.
When I just graduated from high school, I had to move out from my parents’ house and continued my journey of exploring the world. With support from my American family and a scholarship from my college in Santa Fe, I came back and studied in the U.S. That was when I circumnavigated the world.

"You are the lessons you learn from the mistakes you made, hence you are nothing without your mistakes" is what I often tell myself. I always wanted to see the world, and in a sense, I did. I’m 22 years old now, and I have lived in 5 different cities and attended 4 colleges in 2 different continents. Jakarta, Bandung, Santa Fe, Chicago, and Seattle. Sounds pretty crazy, perhaps, but again, ma vie est mon aventure.
Crazy as it sounds, for the past 5 years, the only family I know is my American family. They’re the ones that have been taking care of me. Even the people whom I call my best friends now are Dutch, Japanese, Indonesian, Korean, and Italian.

Seeing the world through other eyes doesn’t mean that you agree with the way they think and do things, it means that you empathize with it and cast aside your attributes for a while. And having a family and best friends with different backgrounds, cultures, religions (even my boyfriend for the past 2 years is American) have put a lot of insight into my mind. I become enriched. Enlightened. Educated.
A cultural education is what one needs.