I wouldn’t consider myself a traveler. I had a million excuses to not leave my comfort zone and to take this course at Temple, taking the same 15 minute walk from my house to main campus that i’ve been doing for a year now. No pain, no gain.
I’ve faced a lot of tough questions about being an American abroad and in general just being a tourist. It takes a lot to recognize the cycles and the power that we as tourists have over local people and their communities. Furthermore, just because they’re our neighbors to the south, Mexico has an entirely different history, culture, and expectations of people that i’ve had to get accustomed to, with all my preconceived notions about Mexican culture challenged.
I asked before this trip why, generally speaking, one should put their study-abroad’s on their resumes when applying to jobs. I understand now that it shows people I was able to see that there’s a larger world out there than just the boroughs of Philadelphia and the wider 50 united states. It shows that I was able to engross myself in another culture, look at it with a critical eye and compare the lives and expectations of the people I visit and the people I know back home.
This experience has put into a new perspective all facets of my identity, and showed me the scope of just how many different identities exist in the world. The immersion of Mexican and Mayan culture offered a perfect blend of learning and thinking about colonial legacies, an appreciation for the long history of pre-colonial peoples, and how information and tradition can preserve cultures and lifestyles under great oppression. As much as I long for home, this will be an experience that will forever live with me and the critical thinking I’ve done along the way will let me look at the smaller details of American life that go unnoticed.
