Seeing the Realities of My Semester Abroad

I have to say, I got pretty emotionally watching the promotional video Semester at Sea sent me several weeks ago. I sort of had a vague sense or idea of what I was getting myself into when I signed up for the voyage, but visually seeing it put me in a whole new perspective. I realized I would be meeting a lot of new and very diverse people from all over the world, from many varying economic classes, backgrounds, cultures, etc. Great; I love meeting new people. But I had not thought about how hard it will be to be constantly leaving these people that I will grow a strong connection to, knowing I will most likely never see them again. This will probably be especially hard for me since I tend to get attached to people really easily. Not only will I have to leave my family and friends for four months but I will be constantly leaving behind many other friends I make during my voyage. at the end of the voyage as well, people from all over the US will return home and I will never get to see them all again. That's not an easy thing for me to accept.
Aside from the personal connections aspect, it will also be challenging seeing people surviving in terrible environments completely unrealized in the US. I will see the remnants of blatant discrimination in South Africa and India, I will see extreme poverty in Ghana and India, and I will see the remnants of war in Vietnam.
Then there will be the personal challenges to my comfort zone. There will be new and different things confronting me on every corner: new foods, new customs, new dress, new norms, etc. It's going to inevitable I am going to change and grow up a lot really fast. I will have to be fully responsible for myself. I will have to navigate a foreign county with no cell phone, hopefully with others, but without mom or dad to call up instantly to get help. I will be constantly forced to open myself to new and sometimes intimidating or scary things because it is what you do when you are in a new country. I'm glad I started to realize these things now so I am not in for as huge of a shock when I get to my first port.

Financial Aid

Well, looks like I did get financial aid after all! $4250 in scholarships, not even loans! That makes my payment to Semester at Sea cheaper than my bill to USD! I just wish I had worked on the financial aid sooner, or at least paid attention to the due dates better. I had to overnight my application for work study, costing an extra $14, and I didn't end up getting it. And I missed the deadline for the full-ride scholarship by a few days. If there is one thing I've learned, it's not to procrastinate. Even though this paperwork is in no ways fun, it is so necessary to get them done early, or else I end up scrambling and stressing about getting them in on time. And making copies of everything is so important too! I've turned in a few papers so far without making a copy beforehand, and I've had to get them re-signed a few times. My disciplinary clearance form didn't arrive so I had to get the school to fill it out again, and I had to have my adviser and the psychology department chair sign my declaration of major form twice because I didn't make a copy before turning it into One Stop. Overall, this process requires a lot of diligence, something I have been overall lacking :/

5 AM: Class Registration

Well, I have officially begun the countdown. 99 days and counting. I woke up at 4:45 this morning to make sure I got the classes I wanted, and it was well worth it because I got all of them! I have Culture in Personality Development with a USD psychology professor, Religion and Human Experience in Global Perspective and Intro to World Music to look forward to next semester, along with the required Global Studies course. It was hard to choose only three classes; they all sound so interesting! I think once I board I'll look into what classes still have openings and register for one. Yes it is more work, but with some many interesting offerings it is so hard to limit myself!
It is all starting to sink in a little more now that I am registered for my classes. Before, this whole thing felt like it was some distant fantasy. But now I realize, I am going on this amazing journey that will take me around the world to experience all kinds of new people and cultures. I don't know what to expect other than that I will not be returning the same person. How well will I connect with my roommate and other passengers? This is no doubt a rich man's expenditure; will my fellow passengers embody a rich, white, entitled culture or a global attitude? Will the citizens of each country we visit look at us with disdain or will they welcome us into their country? And how will the transition home be? Will I have trouble adjusting and reconnecting with everyone here? Overall I am having a hard time knowing what to expect because this is such a unique experience. The good thing about going to USD is we have so many students who choose to participate in Semester at Sea and so when I return, I will not return completely alone.