By Junho Hong

I can’t believe it’s already the end of March. I went to Miami and Cancun during my spring break. I’ve never thought about traveling to those places before, but it was astonishingly wonderful. It’s hard to choose my favorite places, but if I needed to, then I recommend South Beach in Miami, and Valladolid square in Mexico. Having me time in South Beach was one of the best ‘chill moments’ in my entire life. Also, Valladolid square was so cozy and beautiful. If I could, I would stay there longer than one day. As you can feel, I had a successful spring break from beginning to end. When I came back to my ‘original’ student life, I reflected on myself a lot, because I’ve already passed half of the journey at Temple. Can you believe it? I can’t. Some people might miss their home country studying abroad, and others might not. If you ask me “Do I miss South Korea?” then I’ll say “No, not yet”. Let me explain why.

First, there are still so many experiences I haven’t tried yet. The word “experience” doesn’t mean just traveling around the US or hanging out with many friends. It includes experiencing American culture, learning manners, social norms, and especially flipping through different perspectives. When I came to the US and encountered cultural disparities, it was difficult to understand logically. However, since then, I have adapted to it. Now I can perceive cultural differences as an “America thing” and I try to connect with reasons to explain these differences. I interpret them as being linked to social systems, hierarchies, and other cultural norms. The more I can see, the more lessons I can learn. Thus, as time passes, my curiosity and satisfaction of life in the US is getting higher. Someone could say that “you are satisfied with your journey because you are an exchange student and you are not job seeker”. I agree with that. Yet as I am studying English and putting my energy and time into learning new things, it doesn’t mean I don’t have any concerns or hardships. I have met so many talented students and people. It sometimes makes me feel a lot of pressure to compete with them or reach the same point they’re standing. Meanwhile, I decided not to be discouraged by them. Rather, I will learn from their strengths. In the end, I’ll just become a better version of myself. In the rest of my journey at Temple, one of my goals is consistently receiving positive impacts from good people.

Next, I could sense that living out of my comfort zone makes me go one step further. This January, I couldn’t feel a huge accomplishment, because I was already busy adapting to unusual conditions. However, I recently started to realize my improvements made after I came to the US. For example, I am not afraid of having small talk with strangers. Rather, I sometimes feel this causal talk is a small joy. Additionally, I actively show and explain who I am and how I think about specific things. I am always surrounding myself with people and environments which allow me to be myself. I perceive these changes as either my hidden nature and personality, or something created since I’ve lived in the US. Nonetheless which side it stands, one thing is a fact: that I am changing and progressing in a good way.

Whether I am doing something interesting or going through my normal routine, I keep having in mind that every day studying at Temple University is priceless. Thus, I must not lose confidence due to uncertainty or fear of failure. I hope many people make their advance during this exchange journey at Temple.