A Nomadic Lifestyle Taught and Encouraged by the Possibilities of Experiential Learning
Northeastern and co-op, by the time you enter your first year of classes are, essentially, synonyms. You’ve explained so many times why you chose Northeastern and all the possibilities at hand through the co-op program that by the time you get to orientation week, the mere thought of hearing about it one more time from alumni and current students sounds like a nightmare. But you do – repeatedly, until the moment that you finally get to define what your experience will look like. For me, it involved moving out of apartment after apartment and into another one a few months later. The idea of a home seemed, to me, like a distant idea from the past.
I remember applying to scholarship programs a few years back and talking about the importance of being a global citizen in the becoming world of international business and travel. Portraying to an unknown audience that I understood the dangers of blissful ignorance and asking for money because of it. In the back of my mind of course, I truly believed that learning about other cultures and languages should be a priority to everyone for the bare minimum reason of being a better person after such an experience, but of course, because of the academic and professional reasons as well. It was not until I took my first internship abroad the summer going into my sophomore year that I understood that to thrive in international settings, you had to have some sort of international eruditeness to thrive. This being a skill that people develop over years of travel and networking, I put myself in a situation where working in a French medical device industry as an intern, I had to adapt or fail in a span of two and a half months.
I made it through and for my first co-op I decided to move yet again, this time to Rhode Island for my first co-op in another medical device company. I found a studio mid-third semester and signed a six-month lease (with an addendum of course because by the time you’ve graduated you’ll realize that a 12-month lease while at Northeastern is as inconvenient as a pesky mosquito lingering close to your ear while falling asleep). So, I moved and fell in love with living alone and a beautiful much-cheaper-than-Boston-apartment and got accustomed to a taste of adulthood that few but Northeastern Students get to experience. Of course, as soon as I was getting into the hang of things and life as a full time engineer and finished up all of my projects, it was time to pack up and move away.
Three medium boxes and a small carry on is what it takes to pack the entirety of my belongings. A week before my dialogue began I went through the familiar routine of packing, throwing out, and putting all things in storage, and sleeping on the floor on the eve of a new experience. I now sit in Lyon, France in a smaller but cozy studio in a building named after the great Victor Hugo, waiting for my classes to begin so I can finish my French minor. For a month and a half, I will live here until the next chapter begins and I move again. For a month and a half, I will get to get out of my comfort zone and grow as a person. Understand and experience a very particular part of the world to which I am a stranger to. I will grow as a person and learn as a professional. I hope to be more understanding and learned in a culture which I am becoming familiar with.
Over and over again I get to go through this incredible cycle enabled by the experiential learning doctrine adopted by Northeastern. Because of it, I get to be a citizen of everywhere; a student of experience.
Although I recommend doing something similar to anyone willing to listen, I understand that the idea of knowing nothing about where you live and constantly feeling misplaced seems but a tad intimidating, but, if you have a few years to spend out of your comfort zone and even a tinge of curiosity, you will emerge with at least a good global citizen elevator pitch for future jobs and most definitely a few bar stories to tell while on your way to your next destination.
