Prospective Post

It’s January 9, 2019, a few days out from embarking on our Hero’s Journey. I’m sitting, looking out at a vast city, seeing all the twinkling lights from a bird's-eye view. I tend to do my most existential and introspective thinking when I’m sitting on a plane so decided it would be a great time to reflect on my goals and aspirations of the biosciences semester abroad.

Overall, I’m ecstatic. I’ve been looking forward to this trip for quite some time now. See, while I always hoped to study abroad, I never thought it to be possible. With the Biomedical Sciences coursework and my aspirations of medical school (and the random ‘essential’ extracurriculars that would be tough to complete abroad, i.e: volunteering, shadowing, research etc), it simply did not seem feasible. However thanks to Dr. Wasser’s email in the spring detailing the program, I realized I was wrong. I switched my schedule around a bit, started working more, spending less and voiala, here I am about to start this hero’s journey.

Going forward, I’m particularly excited to immerse in a different culture (German, in this case) to live out a phrase I admire by Ralph Waldo Emerson when he said “Every man I meet is superior to me in some way; and in that, I learn from him.” How I interpret this is that everyone and everything (including a culture, a language, a country, and a host family) has something to offer us and we can learn from them. The key, I believe, is to be open to this sort of learning. I’m also excited travel and learn with the other members of this program. My classmates and I are all in the same boat and that provides a unique opportunity to one-of-a-kind and genuine friendships.

 As for the academics, I am really looking forward to the Physiology course. Biomedical Anatomy was extremely interesting and the biochemistry courses we BIMS students take are awesome (particularly biochem II, the first one was “mehh”), and I think Physiology will be a sort of blend of the two; I’m excited to delve into the material.

            Lastly, I should consider any concerns for the next few months. I truly wish to learn the German language as much as possible during my time there. I am concerned that I won’t meet my goal. However, I will certainly try my best. I also hope to be a good guest in my home and don’t make the family feel weird with my presence. I am slightly concerned about my fitness while abroad. I really enjoy exercising and feel sluggish when I don’t. So, I hope to accommodate working out while in Bonn.

This plane is about to land and the passive-aggressive flight attendant is making her way forcing people to put away “large electronic devices” (because they’re obviously such a hazard to the pilot’s landing abilities). I guess if he doesn’t land correctly there’s the possibility that my laptop flies away and hits somebody. Then again, if he doesn’t land correctly we all have bigger concerns than an airborne 2.2 lb MacBook. So this is farewell for now.

TL;DR: Extremely excited about every aspect of the trip!!!!!!