Getting to Know the World — the Benefits as an International Student

Leaving the land that raises me, going to the continent that across the ocean, and studying at a place that everyone speaks a different language, these are what I experience as an international student. People around always ask me why I want to go to another country for education, the only reason I tell them is to pursue a different world.

I am not leaving due to any bad of my country. On the contrary, I am leaving to better understand my country and better appreciate its beauty. As an international student, I gain a lot of experience in the U.S., learning how to take care of myself, how to manage my own business, how to get on well with others; I meet a lot of students with different culture backgrounds, knowing what festivals they celebrate, what kinds of views they have towards a certain thing, what their lives are different from mine; and I form my own ideas in the most important stage of my life. The most beneficial advantage of being an international student, in my opinion, is that we are able to know what the world is like based on our original understanding. In this way, we are able to eliminate bias, build as well as rebuild the understanding over and over, and finally form our worldviews and life views.

I used to think that the countries outside our borders are much better, higher paid, more stable life, and better welfare policies. My first host family lived exactly what I imagined they may have, big houses, large garden with two pounds, in addition to two dogs and two cats. But not a while, I was surprised to hear that the teacher, who taught us for the time we stayed, illustrated how lucky she felt to get the job she had. She lost her job before, and also was afraid of losing her current job. I was 12-year-old at that time, shocked by what she told us and only to realize that the people living elsewhere do not live an idealized “happy” life as suggested in the fairy tale. Rather than sitting at home and someone would offer them jobs, they also need to work hard and compete with others.

Another thing that changed my view towards people from other countries was the time I attended a MUN event in Washington D.C. as an international student (It would be either positive or negative depending on how you think about it, but to me, it is a neutral thing). In the meeting, we could send private messages to other attendants via a small piece of paper. I used to think that people outside were more naïve, but it proved I was wrong. One time, I was writing a private message to another attendant, sealing well and the only visible words were “from xxx to xxx”. Of course, the messages were manually transferred by other attendants. Most of the time, we were happy to help pass those messages on. Yet, a boy intercepted my message intentionally (he didn’t notice that I sat behind him), read the message, and hid it at last. I was angry, never thought about some foreigners can be cunning as well. People I met before while abroad were all too nice to me, never showing me anything immoral or misbehaved. But now, I found that humans were similar to each other, some were nice while some were cunning. I then began to keep some mind when I got to know others, not hurry to define whether he or she was trusty or not.

I started to reflect back to my home country with a more objective view. There was not anything inherently worse. Although there are still a lot of things it needs to improve, it does its best to provide us a better life. It does well on a lot of things too. Welfare is getting more comprehensive, our lives are getting more stable, and it provides more opportunities for youths. Being an international student, I have the chance to take a look at what the world is like away from my comfort zone. It is as pleasing as I imagine, but also fills with some unexpected weaknesses. If I was not stepping out of my familiar place, I would never know what the real society may look like, and immersed in my own world of imagination, which full of biases and idealization.