Pre-Study Abroad Excitement and Anxieties

Taking on a grand challenge of making an unfamiliar country my new home excites me yet makes my heart beat in an irregular, unsteady, fast paced rhythm than ever before (Listening to my heart beat is like listening to an untalented, irritating drummer who would drive his neighbors to call the cops). Yes, I am going to Taiwan and I will be studying at the prestigious National Chengchi University that has graduated multitudes of successful Taiwanese  diplomats, lawyers, businessmen and the like. Many Taiwanese have made it a point to remind me how anyone would be so lucky to get into a college like that making it seem as if this university is Taiwan's Princeton,MIT, Stanford, Yale, you name it. Nevertheless, if this university is of the caliber many Taiwanese I encounter describe it to be, I imagine my educational experience as one that enables me to engage in world issues, different cultures, politics, economics issues, and languages. I think this university was the right choice for given its emphasis on the humanities and social sciences, which makes it more appealing to someone studying Chinese language and Political Science.

As thrilled I am fullfilling a dream I have longed for and studying in a renowed famous university known to produce the intellectual capital which drives Taiwan forward, I still feel some what nervous and anxious to start this journey because of the climate of uncertainty surrounding it. Despite the raving reviews I hear about someone's experiences in Taiwan, I do feel relieved to know I am not thrusting myself in a location isolated from mankind and civilization (that would be North Korea) but at the same time you just never know what may happen.  That's why I tell myself to simply calm down and soak up my experiences as a sponge does water. I think that even if my experiences may not match my expectations, there is something to learn and something meaningful to accomplish. I think this little island that has a hodgepodge of countless cultural influences steming from Europe and Asia provides an opportunity to discover something truly special. Let's hope my curiosity and my in-born sense of wonder spark new ideas and thoughts. The world offers an amazing range of possibilities waiting to be explored and I just want to take it by a storm!