"Siri, what's the world like?" by Krystal

"Siri, what's the world like?" by Krystal - March 2016 Scholarship Essay

The best advice I ever received was to never let my schooling interfere with my education. Countless students are so consumed by the necessity to be the best and get the top grade that they forget that not all learning happens in the classroom. Sometimes I find myself in that predicament, but I am always woken up through the power and quickness of news in social media. However, simply hearing about current events on the radio or reading about them on Twitter allows people to feel pity without the guilt of feeling responsible for creating change. Studying abroad develops character, expands one’s point of view, and enables education through experience.
My high school offers students the opportunity to be exposed to new environments or explore their own through a program called Enrichment Week during the second week of March. Every year, students choose a course that interests them, whether that be SAT Prep, backpacking in Washington, or making and selling bracelets to raise money for a Haitian charity. Everyone is encouraged to immerse themselves in something they would never do otherwise. For the past two years, I have been fortunate enough to participate in immersion trips to El Salvador last year and El Paso, Texas just last week. I lived and bonded with complete strangers who not only welcomed me into their home, but also allowed me to see the world through their eyes.
I learned more about Salvadoran culture and history and about immigration issues in Texas in a week than I have in all four years of high school. These trips expanded my worldview as a high schooler, so I can only imagine how much more it could contribute to one’s development as a young adult in college. I believe the experiences in studying abroad are significantly more memorable and impactful on one’s life because it’s difficult to return home after a trip like that and go back to an ignorant, naive mindset. Instead, it elicits a desire to continue living in the shifted perception or create change.
Anyone could Google “life in a third world country” or ask Siri for a description of a foreign African culture, and oftentimes I think that is what my generation limits itself to: experiencing the world through a screen. The easy way. I fear that people will grow in the comfort of their ignorance, their single-story and will never want to be faced with adversity. It is under new of difficult circumstances that one learns the most. I want something different for myself and for my peers, and if we all had the chance to live a different reality, if even for a few short months, tomorrow’s leaders could be more well-rounded and aware of someone other than themselves.