Name: Caitlin McGrath
Type of Project: Study Abroad
- I participated in the Human and Animal Interactions Education Abroad program in Ireland. Over the course of nine days, my group members and I traveled across seven cities in Ireland exploring the different types and industries of animal use in Ireland. I learned about the impacts, causes and uses of land and animals within their society, and we discussed and compared it to that of our own in the US.
- The main revelation I took from this experience is that we are all more alike than we are different. Culturally, I didn’t expect Ireland to be drastically different from the United States since a lot of us here have ancestors from Ireland, they speak the same language, I hold the same religion, etc. However, the Irish have a very different and much longer history than we do, both politically/socially and in regard to their animal use. I expected these differences to create a barrier between us and for them to be very obvious when communicating with the locals. On the contrary, every interaction I had with an Irish person highlighted the similarities and shared experiences or mindsets that we had rather than the differences.
This realization of mine really changed the way I see people who live in other parts of the world. In the past, I was always so focused on the contrast between us (usually in a good way, looking at what I could learn from them), but now I see that that should not be my first thought going into an interaction with a person from a different country. I should look to find common ground because that is what is important and what bonds us together as humans. Then this makes the discussion of differences more palatable and friendly.
- Since the focus of this trip was centered on human and animal interactions, we visited many sites where the use of animals was central in their industry. What I found was although there are certainly differences in some of our attitudes and usage of animals, on the whole, we are a lot more similar than we are different. Not only on the topic of animals did I relate to the people in Ireland, but also socially and culturally. Even though we are from different parts of the world, it was hard to have a conversation where we didn’t find something in common.
Ireland’s history of using animals in everyday jobs and industries is much longer than ours in the States, but it has evolved to look very similar to ours. For example, animal welfare is becoming an increasing concern and priority in animal-related industries in both of our countries. We attended talks and seminars from professionals centered on this topic, and they sounded a lot like the ones I’ve heard in America. Their actual laws and practices might vary, but the ideas are the same. The Irish also had similar issues in their farming industry, which is becoming less and less profitable for small, family farmers and is moving more toward commercial farming. Speaking with farmers there felt like I was speaking with American farmers, just with different accents.
I found a lot of common ground with the Irish also relating to just our daily lives and attitudes. I was talking to a couple of young girls around my age who worked at the zoo, and we were sharing stories and agreeing on all sorts of topics. We talked about the weather and always getting sunburnt, we talked about school and classes, and we talked about friends and going out and having fun. Also, I remember our bus driver speaking about the trials and concerns in his life, like taxes and the law and getting tickets, and how familiar they sounded to me. There are definitely differences in the way we live our lives and in our environments, but overall I remembered the similarities more than I did the differences.
- This transformation in my perspective has made me view other countries and traveling differently. Before this trip, I was apprehensive to travel internationally because I was afraid that the differences between me and the people there would make them dislike me or make it hard for us to relate. Interacting with the Irish challenged these concerns. It made me realize that people are looking for ways to relate to each other. As long as I am respectful, it is not hard to find common ground with people living in different places as me, and this will make it much easier for me to travel in the future. Becoming more comfortable traveling both fulfills a personal goal of mine and changes my future plans to include more of this. I cannot wait to use these new skills on my next international trip.
One of my academic goals also was to be able to apply what I am learning in the classroom not only to my own small world, but also to the much broader global world. Realizing that we have a lot in common with other cultures makes it easier for me to learn about their practices because I can see the similarities first before the differences, and this makes them easier to understand and process. This new perspective overall has made me more open and receptive to understanding global concepts and has made me seek out more knowledge on a global basis rather than staying comfortably within my country’s borders.
