My International Semester

By Tommy Leung on 12/25/2008 in Life

UPDATE: So I wrote this two Christmas’s ago and I live by the idea that if I have the same exact perspective on life year after year, I have not grown. I happen to do a lot of growing year after year.

There are some things that I’ve changed my mind on from this post. I am glad that I had a chance to meet all the people that I did from varying parts of the world. I loved and am glad we had the conversations we did. I grew because of them.

But, I was 22. I could only get smarter from there. Granted, I don’t speak to many of those people who I met with much frequency. We’re friends on Facebook and Twitter. We aren’t about to forget about each other–I am pretty memorable. :) But, friends have always come and gone and very few people stay close for very long. I can only name a handful of people who I’ve known from high school that I still see often.

I knew all of this in 2008. I wrote it.

I still don’t believe the United States is the only country I can live in but, I do believe I have a moral obligation to preserve Liberty in America. It’s a battle of ideas and it is best fought in America. Aside from it being a moral obligation, Americans are more innately accepting of Liberty.

What I’ve discovered since 2008 is that there are a lot of Americans who innately understand Liberty. As the government continues to grow, this becomes more and more apparent. It gives me hope. Contrasting it from the Europeans I met, they are not so innately accepting of Liberty.

It’s a cultural thing, I assume. I loved the debates because they were the society I don’t want America to become. I felt I won those debates hands down. It improved my understanding of Liberty. It sharpened my arguments for the Euro-wannabes in America. Europe has history, character, and personality but, their politics would drive me insane.

And when I do travel to Europe, I’d love to meet up. After all, I don’t know any one else in those lands. But right now, I am focused on me. The work I do. Becoming known in my field. Becoming successful–both financially and socially. And so, as relaxing as the European way of taking your sweet ass time going through “free” school and delaying doing real work for as long as possible sounds, I’m an American. We work hard.

by Tommy, May 8th, 2010

———————————————————————————————–

It is the night of Christmas Eve or basically 35 minutes into Christmas as I am writing this. I am not actually waiting for Santa Claus but, if he shows up, I’d gladly have a beer with the man–can he get a DUI? I have finished my last semester at Pace University for a BA in Marketing. All should be fine unless I am somehow missing a class or one of my professors this semester decides to fail me. Barring any freak occurrences, I should be fine.

Of all the years and semesters of college that I’ve had across three different schools, this last semester was by far the most memorable. It does have the advantage of being the one that happened last so there might be some bias but, I’m pretty sure I’ve not had this much fun in all my eight other semesters.

I’ve dubbed this past semester my international semester. I didn’t actually travel anywhere. I was still in New York City but, the world kinda came to me. In my entire college experience I had never met so many students from different countries. They were mostly from Europe with a few from Asia and Australia.

At this point I have only known these people for a little over 3 months. It really isn’t a lot of time and for the most part we just partied at least every weekend with a few random weekdays. As with all human relationships, we get to know some people better than others. Of those who I have gotten to know better, I am really glad that I had the chance to do so. I do expect that we will stay in touch or become even closer but, experience has taught me that none of that is ever for sure.

I know that I’ve grown a lot in these last three months as we’ve exchanged ideas and parts of lives and cultures. It is an experience that gives you a different perspective on the world. I was never a flag-wearing “patriotic” American but, I had always felt a certain superiority that I was American. Of course, the rest of the world thinks otherwise but, I had no means of connecting to people from different places.

I do not feel that way anymore. Part of it has to do with my continuous understanding of Liberty but, a lot of it had to do with all the people I’ve met in the last three months. I think that I am a better person now than I was three months ago.

There is that feeling of uncertainty with my “mini United Nations”. Most of them are staying for another semester so I’ll still be seeing them but, what happens after that? I hope that we do stay in contact and visit each other in our respective homes. The people that I’ve met had been unbelievably kind, funny, interesting, and a general blast to be around. Why would I want to lose that?

I’ve spent summers bar and club hopping in NY before I’ve met these people but, there is something different here. I can’t really pinpoint the difference. I just feel it. We are doing more than drinking and partying. I have been exceptionally impressed by the “high level” conversations that we’ve had. It seems like the Europeans just have more intelligent things to say. It is unfortunate that I can’t say the same about the majority of my fellow Americans.

One of the most recent thoughts that have resulted this last semester is the idea that the United States is not the only country I can live in. It is amazing to me that I’ve considered moving away from the United States. I still love the principles that my country supposedly stands for but, it is going down the toilet. Our freedoms are disappearing and the economy is looking more and more like the Soviet Union. All of this combined with my experience in the last semester is telling me that I don’t have to say here. People everywhere else aren’t really that archaic. :) There will never be another city like New York and I know I will miss it but, that’s about the only drawback I can see.

Of course, I have no idea what I’ll exactly do in the future but, my mind has expanded it options and that is a big step.

So, I have loved my last and final semester as a undergraduate college student. It has been the best one I’ve experienced in every aspect. The people have been amazing. The conversations: amazing. The experience: amazing. Now, it is just a matter of seeing where it goes from here.

By Tommy Leung