I am passionate about travel because it has had a large impact on the person I am today. So far, I have had the privilege of traveling to 6 different countries: Italy (2007), Costa Rica (2011), Peru (2014), Germany (2016), Haiti (2017), and Iceland (2017). In just a couple of weeks, I will be embarking on a new adventure as I travel to Oslo, Norway with my fellow nursing classmates. Traveling in the past has encouraged me to be more conscious of how I can be a better global citizen. Becoming a “good” global citizen is an aspect of myself that is ever-evolving, requiring self-awareness and openness to change.
With each of my experiences abroad I feel more and more confident in my ability to shed the “ugly American” sentiment that harms global relationships and adopt a more thoughtful way of traveling. Reflecting back on my previous trips, I can see how I have grown from being oblivious to what terms like cultural humility even mean to now being able to live out the principles practically. At first, adopting this new attitude and way of thinking towards traveling felt uncomfortable. Going to Peru for a service-learning trip was the first time I began aligning my new thinking with my actions. In Peru, I learned that being open, flexible and having a positive attitude when traveling to another country makes all the difference. One example of this that stuck out to me during my experience in Peru was seeing that most people in the town we were staying in did not own any clocks. As a result, I experienced time very differently in the two weeks I was there, learned a great deal of patience, and the importance of slowing down. If I had the attitude of an “ugly American” going into that trip, I would have been very frustrated with the differences between the USA and Peru rather than celebrating those differences. We limit ourselves and the ability of our experience to transform us when we travel as “ugly Americans.”
As someone who is passionate about global health and learning about cultures different than my own, I was eager to apply for the nursing experience in Oslo, Norway when the opportunity was presented to me. I am also drawn to their unique health care system and desire to learn more about how they care for their aging population as a future Adult-Geriatric Primary Care Nurse Practitioner (AGPCNP). Through this course I will be able to further develop my communication skills interacting with others from different cultures, which will translate well into my future practice as an AGPCNP where being able to interact with diverse populations is crucial to delivering quality patient care to all of my patients who will come from many different backgrounds. I hope to gain new perspectives on delivering health care that I could potentially implement into my future practice.
When in Norway, I will share my flexible, go-with-the-flow attitude I have gained from traveling to other places with my fellow classmates to help foster a mindset that is open to changes in the schedule that often naturally occur when traveling abroad. I will also strive to fully engage in the experience to contribute to the enrichment of the course. I look forward to making more memories in Norway and embody what it means to be a good global citizen!
Some of my favorite memories from previous trips:
