Hello, I’m Megan. Thanks for taking the time to read my blog posts. To give you some context, I’m currently moseying along through junior year here at Rutgers. With any luck, next May I will graduate with a B.S. in food science and minors in microbiology and sustainability. In my free time, I enjoy messing around with plant propagation (from vegetable cuttings – really cool to watch them grow), cooking (and eating), and playing music (plucking at the violin or clattering around on the piano).
I was really hoping to spend my entire winter break curled up in a blanket next to a space heater at home. Since I’m already more than halfway through my college career, the remaining number of opportunities to hibernate for a month straight are few.
So, quite reasonably in my opinion, I initially disregarded all the emails and flyers posted around the Food Science Building promoting the new “Food and Sustainability in Thailand” study abroad program. I just didn’t believe in studying abroad; nowadays, you can find all the information you could ever want about a foreign country online. And why in the world would you want to go overseas to take classes?
Long story short, back in October, I realized that my college experience could definitely be more fulfilling than going through the motions of sitting in lecture and cramming for exams while imbibing inordinate amounts of coffee and wondering how much longer until Friday. Don’t get me wrong, I’m really enjoying food science, and in my totally biased opinion, it is the best major. But there was a nagging feeling that I could be doing more.
“I should do something radical and unexpected to shake things up,” I thought to myself. And here we are.
One of my friends loves traveling and constantly prattles on about how she is dying to visit Spain. I asked her why, and she gave a generic answer about wanting to see the world and experience different cultures. At the moment, I can’t relate. But I hope this will change.
In the long months following the submission of my application to the Food and Sustainability in Thailand program, I had many doubts and had to actively fend off any regrets about my spontaneous decision. But as the trip draws nearer I catch myself feeling excited. I’m looking forward to finding out for myself why studying abroad is a “good experience” and learning more about what it means to “see the world”.
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