Welcome!

Since birth I've been a very world minded person. Having a mother from Malaysia and a father who spent upwards of a year overseas, they did not slack off when it came to world awareness. I recently had gone on exchange to Taiwan, and have met countless people from other countries both before I left and while I was there. I know that in exchange, every experience is a gift, a special something worth sharing. This is a place where you can share these stories. I will be sharing some of my own stories from experiences, augmented by a few of my friends. I hope, though, I can further these stories with ones of your own. Whether you be an exchange student, college student studying overseas, or even just travelling. Welcome, my good friend, to the world view (:

Friday, November 9, 2012

Alone.


You know, before I left there were times when I was asked, “Aren’t you afraid of going over there all alone?”  I always just sort of smiled and awkwardly shrugged and replied with a simple, “I don’t really know.”
or, they would ask the same thing in a different way.

“Wow, I could never do that, leaving all our friends, family…..”

“How are you going to survive outside of here? I couldn't take it.”

 I never really had an answer to these questions or comments, you see. Before I left, I was so busy preparing I never really thought about what would happen the second I stepped off the plane and onto Taiwanese soil (concrete, asphalt, etc.). I mean, I had been raring to get out of America and go on this adventure, but it never really had struck me what exactly I was leaving behind before people starting saying all of this. It never was at the front of my mind, I was too concerned looking at what was to come than what I was going to leave behind. I was a car with no rearview mirrors.

But as time wore on and I finally set roots into Taiwan, I started to realize, I wasn’t alone. I was never alone. My feelings slowly transformed from one of a person scrambling to piece together a new and often times confusing life to one that felt comfortable in his new life. What friends and family I had left behind I gained again overseas, closer ones as well. While you’re traveling you will find that there are no shortages of people like you, strangers in their strange land, who eventually become friends in their new homeland. The incredible rapport built between you, other exchange students, your host families, and classmates will bring you into a feeling you have never felt before. Especially with exchange students. You are all new into this strange new country, and that immediately gives you something in common. It teaches you that people can and will come together in any situation, and can create a family, no, something stronger than a family. In something like this, you are never alone. All you have to do is know where to look ^.^