France Beyond Borders

My STEP project was an amazing study abroad experience to Europe. Over the course of the 3-weeks I spent abroad we traveled to six different cities across France, Belgium, and Spain. The study abroad was a cultural immersion experience centered around understanding how across the different regions we visited people are similar and/or different due to borders or the lack of borders. Major activities consisted of visiting cultural sites, museums, progressive artists, and getting walking tours of the various cities.

While I was abroad I learned many things about who I am and how others perceive me to be. I learned that I am someone that others come to because I have a trusting spirit. I learned that I enjoy getting to know about other people, their life stories, and their past experiences. It didn’t so much become an entirely different person but while I was abroad their realization came to my attention. It is something about when you go abroad that you cannot get while you are here at home (in the U.S.). It could be that society rules are different or that peoples experiences vary greatly from what we experience day to day. I realized that the world is an extremely complex place and that no two people have the same experiences. It is largely  influenced by your heritage and how you grew up, the rest is based on life circumstances and your personality.

These things I learned about myself came about mainly while I was in the south of France. It France itself is an extremely diverse country with influences coming from all over the world. Due to their history with colonization especially across north and west Africa explains the heavy African influence that can be felt and experienced in the south. My interactions with locals every single time was by chance and unexpected. I came to get to know this lady by the name of Linda who ran a simple sandwich shop close to the first hotel we stayed at on our first night in Marseille. She was a very kind woman from Algeria. She wanted to know all about me and what I was doing in France and when I would be coming back. Upon my arrival back to Marseille three weeks later, just a few days before coming back home I passed by her shop in hopes of talking to her one more time before leaving France. I was greeted with very big smile and a huge hug. Linda was very excited to see that I came back to visit her and was surprised that I wanted to say goodbye before leaving. She was so intrigued by me and what I want to do that she urged me to call her from time to time to keep up.

Linda told me all about her family, where they are from,  and why she moved to France from her home. She also told me that she lived in New York for a period of time, loved it, but had to come back to France to raise her son for safety reasons. She told me time and time again that I had nothing to worry about, I am smart and that I have the ability to do whatever I want. Interacting with Linda made me realize that I have a gift to talk, and listen to others that can be used in my future travels to not only meet others, but to experience whatever country I am in to the fullest. It was an eye-opening experience the simple interaction I had with a lady that is the owner of a sandwich shop but it was also very humbling to see that the community is always there we just have to put ourselves out there to experience it.

These realizations that I came to while I was abroad have only helped me to realize that I have the potential to do whatever it is I set my mind to. As a student it is nice to know that you can learn as much as you allow yourself to. My last couple of days in France were a complete learning curve. Not only about myself but about life as a whole and what role I play in it. My interaction showed me that as a physician I have the skills necessary to instill trust in my patients to ensure that I can give them the best possible care and that they can feel comfortable around me. Finally, this planted a seed of doubt in my mind: should I continue to travel abroad and learn about other people, should I go abroad for a semester to gain a more in depth perspective to life, more specifically my career? These are questions that over the course of what remains of my academic career will be answered.

On the Seine river in Paris, France