Finding Wisdom

I didn’t know how it felt to travel abroad until July 2009. I got scholarship as an exchange student for 2 semesters in University of Wyoming, USA. Even, I had never gone to an airport before. Airports were strange places for me. I didn’t know what transfer flight was, what baggage claim was, and many other terms related to airports. I little bit worried about myself traveling thousands miles away to the place that I could see only from TV and internet.

I felt the new atmosphere, saw new faces, new cultures by the time I landed. No families, no friends, nobody I knew. I didn’t know how to express my feeling when I stepped the Uncle Sam’s country for the first time. I just said in my heart, “I am abroad”.

I had to learn fast if I wanted to survive. Adapting to a really new place is not something as easy as 1-2-3. I had to learn how to say hi, make friends, order meal, arrange my words into understandable sentences in English, make a joke, use public facilities. Joining a community helped me to understand local people. I needed to understand them, so they can understand me. With good mutual understanding, good relationship can be sustained.

My adventure was not only in my campus. I did backpacking in New York City, stayed at somebody’s house in Alabama that I didn’t know before, got lost in Washington, DC and NYC, missed a flight on the way back to Wyoming, even experiencing a rattle snake passing through my feet. Those moments won’t be able to fly away from my head. Jumping into real life problems only makes me stronger.

So what I’ve learnt? Many things actually. I can’t judge other people without putting myself in other’s shoes. I have to understand other people first if I want to be understood. Sometime we fear something we don’t know, something we don’t understand. So just get closer to it and we can act wisely, properly.

The world is vast. I need to explore it to gain more knowledge, more wisdom. I need another adventure.