Goals for Going Abroad

Born and raised in East Tennessee is a bit of a jarring background to associate with a small Asian girl, but it’s true. I’m a child of two Filipino immigrants yet I’ve never experienced the world like they have. I’ve only had a small taste of the worldliness they’ve experienced on their way to the States, but I have yet to experience it for myself.

But in a few months, I’ll be doing just that with a summer internship in New Zealand. All of it came together in a little less than two months – which is still quite bizarre to think about – but I’ve only grown more excited with each day (and each form I turn in).

I’m not exactly sure what I’ll be doing yet, but that’s just another part of the excitement. I haven’t even bought my plane ticket yet, but I just know that it’ll be an experience that’ll follow me on my path through life. Believe it or not, the part that I am looking most forward to is learning how to work in a research or healthcare setting since that is the fork in the road I have ahead of me after graduation. This is the part where my penchants for overly seriousness and usually being overdressed will come in handy.

However, this experience won’t be all work and no play. I fully intend to take in the sights (call me the American Hobbit), maybe do some extreme height jumping (don’t tell my mom), and experience the Maori culture firsthand. Despite growing up with proud Pinoy parents, a culture strongly influenced by an Asian culture was not a common thing for me to see in my environment. That will definitely be an interesting change of pace and maybe I won’t be the minority here.

Before I get back to preparation (and trying not to die from homework), let me let you in on a secret. I’m a bit frightened. More than I want to admit. I’ll be jetting off to a country where I know nobody personally by myself and it’ll be the longest I’ve been away from home by myself. What if I build up the excitement too much for myself and am let down upon landing? What if I want more?

I think that the best approach I can take in response to my fears is to worry about when I get there and not beforehand. Obviously, I’m not referring to forgoing worries about the logistics of getting there because I should most definitely be worried about. However, there’s something I need to do differently than I like to do here: I need to not have a plan. More specifically, I need to not plan so much for the way that things will be like over there. I need to ignore my default mode of choosing to stay in when the plan offered isn’t my own. Most importantly, remember the motto that’s gotten me this far: Go big or go home.