Sarah Grady
- Please provide a brief description of your STEP Signature Project.
The past Spring 2019 semester I studied abroad with Semester at Sea. In 106 days I traveled 11 countries across 4 continents. We traveled by sea aboard the MV World Odyssey and got the chance to learn so many things in Hawaii, Japan, China, Vietnam, Myanmar, India, Mauritius, South Africa, Ghana, Morocco, and Amsterdam.
- What about your understanding of yourself, your assumptions, or your view of the world changed/transformed while completing your STEP Signature Project?
My understandings and my assumptions of myself and the world completely transformed while completing this project. From the culture shock of silent Japanese trains to traveling through Myanmar, a country where religious genocide was and is happening still, to experience load shedding in Cape Town, I learned that my privilege in being an American runs deep, yet there are also comparisons that make me ashamed of my own country.
I learned how to be confident in myself and adapt to the everyday curveballs life throws my way, especially while traveling. I learned how to deal culture and language barriers, trying to represent myself, my family, my school, and my country as best as I could. I transformed from a site seeing tourist to an eager to be informed traveler.
- What events, interactions, relationships, or activities during your STEP Signature Project led to the change/transformation that you discussed in #2, and how did those affect you?
A specific event during my Semester at Sea voyage that led to my transformations occurred on the way to and during my time in the beautiful country of Myanmar. There was so much conversation about whether or not we should be traveling there at all, with the genocide of the Rohingya people occurring. Many people thought we were encouraging it and giving our tourist money basically directly to the government who is inflicting this hateful ethnic cleansing. However, many people also conversed about the fact that without our visiting and seeing the lives of the majority of the Burmese peoples, we never would have even known about what was going on, and how to have productive conversations about politics, religion, and our places and roles as global citizens. The ultimate decision to experience the country was one of the best that we made, in my opinion, because I learned more about a country and its people than I ever had, and learned that there is more love in the world than hate.
A relationship that led to my transformation during that Spring semester was a friendship that I forged around halfway through the voyage. During my travels in India, I participated in a program that brought us to animal sanctuaries and elephant conservations. On the way to or from one of these stops, I sat down on the bus next to someone I hadn’t yet met. At the beginning of my trip this was a normal thing to do because no one really knew each other. However, once we all settled into our friend groups on the ship, there wasn’t as much of these reaching out gestures. To this day I am so glad that I made the decision to share a five hour bus ride with her because she became my first friend from a country other than my own. She told me all about her family and home life in China, and was so happy when I told her that I visited her home city while I traveled there a couple weeks before. We compared different foods we liked and television shows, and even now still follow each other and social media and message each other from time to time. Even though there is a chance I will never see her again, I know that I can connect with people from completely different backgrounds from my own and become a better person for it.
My confidence grew immensely throughout this global experience and it showed in the travel skills I and my friend group as a whole honed and developed by the end. Our last port country was Morocco and comparing it to our first port country of Japan still makes us all laugh today. Going into Japan, some of us had never been to a foreign country, and none of us had ever done it with people we had basically just met. That being said, our travels through Japan did not run smoothly and we missed out on some things we wanted to accomplish there. However, by the time we got to Morocco, we had a game plan and accomplished everything we wanted to in the Northern African nation. This trip not only honed my skills in the way that I know I can handle responsible travel, but it also fueled my passion to want to continue bettering myself and surmounting more obstacles year after year. Time management and optimism were essential abroad, and are now essential in my everyday life at home as well.
- Why is this change/transformation significant or valuable for your life?
This transformational travel experience is extremely significant and valuable for my life because I now see how much of an impact one person can have on the world and how important it is to be able to communicate with and learn from people vastly different than myself. The perspectives I have gained will keep my mind open to new ideas and ways of life than can better my own life. Knowledge really is power and I learned more on this experience than I ever have in a classroom.
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