Hello, my name is Czyruzze Villanueva. I am currently a senior here at The Ohio State University who has completed my study abroad program with the help of STEP. I studied abroad in Seoul, South Korea at Sogang University through OSU’s Office of International Affairs. I stayed at a dorm there for roughly about 4 months where I was able to learn more about South Korea’s culture and language as well as learn a lot about myself as a person while on this Journey.
During this Trip, I was able to broaden my perspective of the world as well as my view of myself as a person. As I had a lot of freedom, I was able to see how different I was while I was back here in the States. I had assumed that since the USA is the land of freedom, I really had my own freedom, but I had not noticed these shackles that were binding me. These shackles are known as my constant consciousness of other people’s thoughts of me. I had known of it for some time now, however, this journey where I spent an entire amount of time for myself made me realize how lowly I have and still think of myself and that there are many people who think of me as what I am worth.
One main thing I can say that affected my whole journey on this transformational experience would definitely be the people. I have met so many different kinds of people from all over the world and I am glad to say I had a lot that became my friends. I had arguments with some of them and I was able to earn from some. I realized that each person is different and that I am also different from who I thought I was. Although I am still a lacking person- and have problems, I am also someone who is very dear to other people. I can say this because a friend of mine, although not invalidating my feelings during an argument, pointed out how my emotions are valid and so do other people.
This made me realize how many problems I had. As funny as it is, I start to recall my experiences, and just makes me miss Korea a lot. I miss my late-night walks to Han River at 11 pm-5 am where I would walk in peace without thinking of getting mugged. Appreciating nature made me appreciate what I have and although sometimes I wish to want things that I cannot have, these walks clear my head and help me think through and process my emotions even further as calmly as possible.
I had to emphasize the time frame of my walks because I feel at peace at night, and I am a night owl kind of person. Also due to the fact that if I ever attempt to do these kinds of walks along here in the States, who knows what would happen to me?
This change matters to me so much because I am a person who needs self-healing and self-love. I am a person who would be able to smile. I would like to say that it is kind of a skill that I can just pretend that I do not have a load of problems even though I indeed do have a lot. From each and every category you can think of. Just being able to have this journey made me think a lot and made me appreciate myself more. I liked that. I like that I met many new people that I now can turn my back to if I am struggling. I had grown as a person. And as frustrating as it is to point out that I am still lacking, I feel like I have gained so much from this trip and one of them is that I can now proudly say that I am happy at the moment to where I am in this life.
As for Academics, My Korean still sucks. I had taken a class where I was able to take another beginning Korean course and even though I learned a lot from it, I still suck at speaking the language. I did meet a professor who I am still in contact with and is always there to help me whenever I need help regarding the language. We can think of that as a win-win tradeoff for not being able to speak Korean well even when living there for 4 months.
