Hey everyone! So, something very interesting happened today. I was approached by a member of the SAS stateside team who is working closely with the University of Miami and was wondering if I would write a bit about what SAS and UM have meant to me in my life. Of course, I couldn't help but chime in! I sat down and immediately wrote this up - a heartfelt look at what these two unique experiences have created. Enjoy!
It’s a complicated question to
extrapolate on just exactly how Semester at Sea changed my life. For one, I
wouldn’t be sitting in Cape Town, South Africa, living the life of an American
expat, traveling all around this beautiful, captivating place. I wouldn’t have
had the confidence, the hard earned experience, to pack up and move by myself
to a new city, a new territory, a new life on the tip of the Dark Continent.
Semester at Sea strips down all the notions of “I can’t”, “it’s too hard”, “I
don’t know how” and replaces them with a significant and poignant stillness.
The entire program teaches you precisely how to take moments full of
uncertainty and simply move through them. You become a leader. You become the
calm that others are drawn to amid the chaos.
Life at the University of Miami is
a bit of a dream. The campus is stunning, the programs fantastic. Football
games, clubs and activities fill your schedule. Life is very easy and pleasant
on the fringe of Lake Osceola. The challenges we face as Hurricanes are often
academic, and we are pushed to be avid learners, soaking up the synthesis of
toluene from benzene or Descartes’ musings on the possibility of existence
beneath Miami’s winter sun. Yes, it’s a fantastic place to memorize biological
facts, think critically on important political or economic queries or apply the
truths of our cosmos under observation in the physics labs. But, we have long
known there is more to learning; it is a comprehensive experience. It must
encapsulate all those truths of the universe, and not just the ones outlined by
Einstein and Newton.
On a smaller scale, we must learn
about the truths of world around us. On an increasingly compressed earth, where
travel times and the cost of fuel are the only limitations on young and inquisitive
minds, it is imperative that we include the reality of all earth’s seven
billion when we strive to teach them about life as we know it. Semester at Sea
does just that. And not just through lectures by some of the most incredible
and learned professors in their various fields, but by placing a student
directly inside the beating heart of a new culture. On the streets of a nation
where each and every subject they’ve ever studied will be exhibited in the
daily functions of that novel environment. Where once straightforward
disciplines become enmeshed, intricately intertwined, comingling with emotions,
bias, personalities: in other words, they become a part of real life.
My experience on Semester at Sea
completely shaped the person I became. While on the ship, I enrolled in a class
that focused on infectious diseases around the world and the methods by which
indigenous populations have combatted these conditions. We tackled the inconceivable
diversity of the human condition, from rampant HIV/AIDS in South Africa to the
rarer and more insidious leprosy cases of central and southern India. We were
encouraged to visit hospitals, take water samples, swab for bacteria and check
for parasites. We caught mosquitos to identify the different species that carry
Malaria and Yellow Fever. We were in the field. And by the field, I mean, we
were around the world.
When I returned to the University
of Miami I finally knew where I belonged. Though I always had been a Biology
major, I became a regular fixture in the Microbiology department, and my new
confidence and conviction in my sense of belonging in this subfield helped me
to excel in the unique program. Eventually, I began volunteering at one of my
professor’s labs working with Malaria and Leishmania, and while that solidified
my knowledge of these conditions in a scientific setting, I missed the messy
and somewhat unpredictable world of human beings.
So here
I am, back in South Africa. The rainbow nation. Introduced to me as such by the
very heart of this country; Desmond Tutu. The ever smiling Archbishop that
accompanied us throughout our entire voyage at sea, occasionally sprinkling his
wisdom amongst students. I am here about to start work as a medical intern in
the infectious disease and tropical medicine ward of a hospital clinic in
Heideveld, a township located close to my home in Cape Town. People often ask
if I am afraid of the violence, intimidated by the harsh life many lead on the
streets of townships, uncertain of my place in Cape Town’s history. No, I think
to myself. I am well prepared for the uncertain. I have my stillness.
I am grateful of both the
University of Miami and Semester at Sea for preparing me so thoroughly for the
life I am living. Without either, I surely would be floundering in a different
field, certainly on a different continent, undoubtedly drowning in a sense that
I was supposed to do more. Be more. Instead, here I am writing a book about the
fullness of my life at 23, running a blog about life and travel in Africa,
volunteering in communities that are brimming with love and appreciation, and
fantastically busy, up to my elbows in a field I love.
It is a pleasure for me to be asked
to speak about Semester at Sea, and I take every opportunity available to do
so. I am a firm believer that this option should be open to anyone with the
desire to see what’s out there across our world’s oceans, anyone committed to
studying the vast diversity of life on earth.
As an alumnus, I am going to be visiting the shipboard community this
October when they dock in Cape Town, speaking to students about my new home,
giving advice on how to best achieve the stillness required to navigate our
hectic streets. I am equally as excited to encourage students at my home
University to take a leap of faith and spend a semester fully experiencing what
our world has to offer. Go forth and explore, find your stillness, solidify
your place in this world.
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In other news, sorry for the absolute lack of posting on Tanzania - I have a huge collection of information I want to organize and present to all you wonderful readers, but I HAVE NO TIME! I've been busy rushing around the continent like a madwoman, Mandy and Buddha in tow, and I honestly haven't even had time for a proper sleep, so please forgive my hiatus!
More to come!
- Rh
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