Reflective Essay
As I started my time at St Olaf, transferring from a school of over 30 thousand undergraduate students to a school where my smallest class had five people presented countless opportunities to become involved. However, with all of these new experiences came the matter of being thrown into a completely fresh situation and having to learn the ropes of a whole new college for the second time in only two years. Transferring schools can certainly be overwhelming; I know it was for me, but it can also be a great opportunity to start anew and rediscover just what college can be. Before entering college, the only experience that I had with Asian languages and cultures was in base-level Chinese courses in high school. Pursuing a degree in Chinese and Asian studies wasn’t even an idea that crossed my mind. In fact, I was utterly clueless about what to do in college. Even after my freshman year at Wisconsin, I left for St Olaf without many answers. Arriving at St Olaf gave me a fresh lens with which to view college and coming from a place where professors knew none of their students by name to somewhere where I could have conversations with most of my professors after one week was far more valuable than I could have realized.
My journey through Asian studies and Chinese at St Olaf started with Chinese 111, a course I originally took for the foreign language requirement. As simultaneously a new St Olaf student while a sophomore created a funny situation. My classes weren’t always “sophomore” classes and I knew no one in my class but also I already had a full year of college down. Starting was fresh was certainly nice but finding my place at St Olaf was likely the most difficult part of transferring. It took me quite a long time to finally find my niche and I likely never would have if it weren’t for St Olaf’s Asian studies program. Taking Chinese, I, like most of the other students, didn’t quite know what to expect. However, I quickly found that Chinese was certainly the most engaging and interesting class that I was taking or had ever taken during college so far. Not only was the content interesting but Zhou Lao Shi presented everything in a way that made me want to keep learning and practicing my Chinese outside of class. All of this learning also fostered an interest to learn more about Chinese culture in me. After Chinese 111, my academic plan took on a snowball effect. I took my learning away from trying to take as many varied classes as possible to focus on Asian studies. While Chinese was certainly the starting point to my Asian studies career, it was what came after that solidified my decision to pursue a degree in Asia studies.
Once second semester came around, my interest in Asian studies only grew. As classes progressed, I learned of the chance to study in China with the LUCE foundation. I was unsure of to take the opportunity at first, as I had never traveled abroad alone before and I was certainly unsure of whether or not my language skills would be strong enough to get me through. In my first semester, I hurriedly took the opportunity to go to Japan with KTP to study environmental sustainability and this was probably the primary thing that gave me the confidence to even consider this opportunity. Meeting students from a Tokyo agriculture university let me know that language and culture were certainly not barriers to making friends and having a memorable learning experience abroad. Although I certainly had my doubts about traveling alone, the excitement that came with the chance to improve my Chinese, travel, and conduct research on environmental sustainability is one that I couldn’t pass up. In the months leading up to the program, I simultaneously attempted to plan out as much as I could and developed a blissful understanding that I had no idea what I was getting myself into. While this opportunity may not seem out of the ordinary for some, it was something dissimilar to anything I had done before. Nervousness and excitement came in waves as I embarked to Beijing completely alone. Fortunately, my nervousness peaked on the plane and I had quite a long time to overcome any last doubts I had and besides, even if I didn’t it was too late to go back now.
When I first arrived in Beijing, I kept going over my plan in my head: get through customs, exchange money, and find the proper taxi line. Everything went well and once I finally arrived on campus I felt relaxed for the first time since arriving at the airport to leave Minnesota. However, while I knew I was in the right place and everything was prepared I still had one problem: I didn’t know anyone. As the next day started I noticed just how many people were in the same situation as me. I began to meet people from all over, and this only increased as time went on. While I was only in Beijing for a month, forming new relationships with my fellow students was undoubtedly one of the most valuable parts of the trip. Not only did I greatly improve my language skills and discover the food production, distribution, and labeling differences between Beijing and Minneapolis but I got further connected with parts of Asia and the world that I had never expected. The university at which I was studying had many international students; people came from Korea, Japan, Spain, Britain, Russia, Thailand, and many other countries across the world. With each student also came unique cultural experiences and customs. My primary groups of friends consisted of students from all of these countries and they have even become the people to whom I am the closest today, one specifically closer than even all the rest. Rarely were there even two people from the same place. While it undoubtedly took work to come to understand everyone’s social culture it was also well worth it; I was enriched with far more exposure to new cultures than I had ever imagined. Getting to know all of the students during this time also ultimately gave me the idea and the opportunity for my senior independent research project studying the differences in Identity and belonging between Chinese adoptees in Spain and America. Although it wasn’t at St Olaf, I had found a place where I fit, and I left back to Northfield ready to seize my Junior year.
Starting my junior year, I also began the Asian con program. As I was sort of a year behind, having been unsure of what to do with my life for the first year and a half of my college career, I had to fill up my schedule with as many classes for my majors as possible. As it turned out, this was a great decision. Learning content all centered around the subject about which I was most passionate while still being presented with diverse linguistic, ethnographic, and literary perspectives, all from some of my favorite professors, was the most enriching educational experience of college so far. The benefits of my time in the Asian studies department that semester went even beyond the classroom. Having classes with many of the same students, all with similar interests as me, finally allowed me to find my place at St Olaf. I formed strong on-campus friendships and got to know people who I would continue to invest in academically and socially as semesters passed. While the idea of college certainly is centered around education, there is a reason that when alumni consider their “college years” they remember equal parts classes, organizations, travels, and friends. I was finally realizing why.
As I progressed through the Asian studies program, my education would take me back to China and Japan as well as to Korea over interim. Going back to Asia, this time with a group of people who I knew much better than before the first two times, gave an entirely new chance to experience Asia through an ethnographic lens. Applying what Ito sensei taught about how “No gaze is from nowhere” and Shih Lao Shi’s thoughts on imagined communities to Shanghai and Tokyo in person alongside my St Olaf classmates was incredibly enriching. Even experiencing Asia in leisure, as we traveled to three different countries and six different cities, taught me so much just through exposure and gaining hands-on cultural experience.
Returning to campus for spring semester, everything was in place to finish the year strong and begin winding college down and find how I could apply the many experiences, teachings, and opportunities that I gained through the Asian studies department to life beyond the hill. Reflecting on how I developed a strong respect for Asian culture and love of the Chinese language throughout my schooling at St Olaf allowed me to find out what I really wanted to do with my degree and my whole life. With this, next year I am hopefully planning on teaching English abroad, affording others similar oppurtunities given to me. Seeing the value that can come with connecting global cultures and understanding global perspectives, as I realized throughout my times abroad as well as even within St Olaf’s student culture, I want my career to be focused on involving international communities through the way of international law; an area where I feel like I can make observable and practical impacts. If I were to consider attending law school in highschool I likely would have dismissed the idea, but seeing how law can be used as an avenue to benefit members of many different countries in ways that may not be possible in other fields was a line of work that hooked my interest. While law school still seems daunting, and I am even taking a year before applying, I know that the passion that I have for what I learned during my time at St Olaf and abroad has prepared me for next year and even beyond. The choice to pursue Asian studies as my degree may seem like any other student choosing a major, and while this may be true, reflecting on the impact that this choice has had tells me that whatever degree someone decides to work for, their education and the opportunities that come with it impact far more than just the name of their degree.