Explore the, World Explore Yourself by Nadia

Explore the, World Explore Yourself by Nadia - March 2016 Scholarship Essay

Imagine a person being stuck in one room from the day he/she is born up until that person is seven. If this were to happen that person would have no knowledge of the outside world. He/She would not know what the sky, the ground, buildings, grass, or even houses look like. The person wouldn’t be able to experience certain foods, listen to certain music, or see certain colors. How is this person supposed to know what he or she likes or doesn’t like if the person hasn’t tried it all yet? When a person is confined to only one certain place or activity one really doesn’t know who one is because the person has not experienced the outside world yet. I do believe students should be required to study abroad at least one year because it would let them experience outside of this metaphorical room that is their city or state.
If students were required to study abroad one year it could help them find who they really are. For example, Mark Twain, a famous author, once said, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.” Basically, he is saying that travel will help a person develop a wide opinion on this world because he or she has seen it. And a person can’t fairly make a judgment on this world for oneself if a person hasn’t let r him or herself see all of the world not just one piece of it. For me, I can say that I love Central America because I have been there. If I hadn’t been there and I said I loved it, is that really a fair judgment if I have actually never been there?
The world is a large place with so many possibilities and things to explore. I’m not saying these students have to go and see the whole world, but what if a student decides to major in media but then he goes to India or Africa to study abroad and sees how much help they need medically or in education and they decide to change majors and make a huge difference in this world? If students don’t go see other parts of the country we are depriving them of being able to make a difference, of being able to be free. If everyone was required to study abroad one year, there would be more Mark Twains, Isaac Newtons, and Albert Einsteins in this world. Being deprived from this world is being deprived from a more vital education. The world is our education, some things we can’t learn from books, we have to experience them for real. For example, manners, having manners comes from experience not just reading it in a book. Manners are taught to us by actions not just being told to do them, same with potty training.
The world is a series of lessons and experiences that shape us. Colleges shouldn’t let students be stuck in a room where they were born. They shouldn’t deprive them of seeing the different colors and houses. Mark Twain was an amazing writer and is known for all he has done for fiction writing. If students were required to study abroad it would not be a mistake, it will be the best thing that could happen for them.