“The real voyage of discovery consists, not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes,” I wish I could be credited with this quote by Marcel Proust--nonetheless, I believe he captures more-or-less the same sentiment I wish to convey here.
[more]I felt that my cultural and personal growth was cut short due to COVID-19, as I only had two formative terms on campus as a freshman. This past year has been ridden with social isolation; going from the liveliness and openness of Dartmouth to my small community in Pennsylvania felt suffocating in a sense. I wanted to challenge the stagnancy that accompanied COVID-19 and re-engage not only with the Dartmouth community, but the global community. Within RGLP, I experienced a plethora of cultural experiences via Zoom that challenged my comfort level.
[more]In one of the first RGLP sessions, we were asked to share a cultural experience that had taken us out of our comfort zone. After given some time to think and reflect, we were tasked to share these stories with our peers. I, anxiously recalling an experience, went first. My experience was one with a past coworker from eastern Europe who initially I had thought was being very passive aggressive and unnecessarily blunt with me.
[more]This past fall I went to live in San Juan for two and a half months. I knew enough Spanish to survive, and I knew enough about Puerto Rican politics and history to know I did not know anything about Puerto Rican politics and history. I went for a job and did not know a single person there (even the guy who hired me had taken another job before I arrived. I booked a hostel to try and meet people, but upon arrival I found that people acted very differently. The residents seemed to all get along, they spent quite a lot of time with each other.
[more]In my day-to-day activities, culture tends to be an afterthought. Even when I am communicating with folks who may speak a different native language, reside in a different country, or prescribe to different norms, my goal for the interaction (i.e., a friendly chat, group project, etc.) always overwhelms a recognition of cultural differences. RGLP shaped my perspective on these ordinary exchanges by bringing culture and intercultural differences to the center of attention.
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