By Jo Mikula, Staff Writer
It wasn’t until the spring of my sophomore year that I began to feel comfortable in the Bi-Co community. I have always been shy and college was daunting for me. When I arrived at Haverford, I was reluctant to go to clubs or talk to new people and I felt in over my head in class. Everything was very new and different and I was overwhelmed by it all.
By the spring of my sophomore year, I finally felt like I had found a place at Haverford. I had friends, more of a handle on my courses, and I finally knew my way around the Bi-Co.
I had always planned to study abroad, but when it came time to actually apply for study abroad programs in the fall of my junior year, I began to feel increasingly unsure of myself.
Studying abroad now seemed like a less obvious decision. Did I really want to leave Haverford for a semester just as I was becoming comfortable there? What if I didn’t like the people on my program? What if I suddenly lost all my ties to the Haverford community? If I went abroad, I wouldn’t be able to see my senior friends graduate.
I talked to some of my friends about my concerns, and they all urged me to do what I felt was best. But they also said that they believed in me and that going abroad could be a great opportunity.
And so, on Jan. 5, I went to Paris. I arrived at 6:30 a.m. and spent the whole day in bed. The next day, I had orientation and then I came home and went back to bed. I didn’t have energy, and I felt anxious and isolated.
Slowly, I began to get more comfortable in France. I learned that I could navigate the Paris subway system by myself. I developed a new routine. My French has been improving slowly but surely, and I now feel comfortable holding a conversation in the language. Most importantly, I have made friends.
Being abroad has also helped me take stock of what I appreciate about the Bi-Co, like my classes for example. In France, the teacher is the ultimate and unequivocal authority. Class is not about a discussion or an exchange of ideas so much as it is about learning something from a teacher’s perspective and regurgitating the information in an essay or on an exam. There is a right answer, a right approach, and a correct way to do things.
When the professor returned our essays in my literature class at the Sorbonne, she spent the entirety of the class outlining how we should have written the essay. Paragraph by paragraph, point by point. As an English major at Haverford I was shocked, as we are given lots of liberty with our paper topics and our approach. In my English junior seminar at Haverford, we write a rough draft and then sit around a table in a group of four students with our professor as we read through each essay and make suggestions. We each approach an essay differently, writing on a variety of topics with a wide array of styles. I have learned so much from seeing how my classmates approach a paper and from seeing how my professor responds to each approach.
This semester has challenged me and forced me to grow in ways the Bi-Co would not have, while also making me more appreciative of Haverford and Bryn Mawr.
I am fairly sure that whether or not I had gone abroad this spring, I could have had a meaningful and fulfilling semester. If I had stayed at Haverford, I would have continued building ties in the Bi-Co. But instead I went to Paris, and as a result I have grown in new ways.
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons
