Student Bloggers

Ireland was my third time abroad with funding from Arcadia. A fact which I still can barely believe. The first time I went abroad was for Arcadia’s Preview program. I went to Paris for a week to study Oscar Wilde. The second time, I went to Brunswick, Germany, to study German for 6 weeks under a scholarship. Paris was fun, but it was short, and most of my time was spent with my classmates and best friend, rather than with strangers. While in Germany, however, I spent most of my time around people from all over the world, from many different countries with many different cultural norms and outlooks. We would all sit around, distracted from our work, asking each other about each other’s home countries and what it was like there. It was 6 weeks of pure cultural exchange. It was life-changing. And although a lot of my peers came from conservative countries, they were all very open-minded. Even as an out trans man, never in my life had I felt more secure around people that I barely knew. 

I was talking about this with my friend from London and how my perception of humanity had been slowly changing over my stay, and he responded with a statement I think about often. “I mean, I think it takes a certain kind of person to do this, you know? To put yourself out there in a different part of the world with a bunch of strangers. I think that takes a certain mindset.” He was right, of course; we were all on that trip with the express purpose of learning about a new culture and meeting people from all over the world. When you are that type of person, of course, you will be open-minded. 

But I still think there’s more to it still. Especially after my time in Ireland. 

It was the night of the Bealtaine festival. I was traveling alone and relying on the event’s shuttle service to be on time so I could get the last bus back to Maynooth. It was not only late, but the line was so long that it was going to have to take two or even three trips to bring people back to the parking lot. I was talking to this mother and her two adult daughters while we waited. They said they had been going to this festival for years, and this had never happened before, and I told them I was relying on the bus to get back to Maynooth. They helped me push my way onto the bus, and at that point, I was only going to make it on time if there was no traffic. And then there was traffic. Long story made short: they offered me a ride to the bus stop from their car, and we narrowly made it, trailing right behind the bus to Maynooth. One of the daughters actually shouted, “Follow that bus!” Perhaps it was stupid. It was entirely stupid, actually, I will admit that. While I have a +2 to Intelligence, I have a -2 to Wisdom, to put it in D&D terms. But I trusted a middle-aged woman in a flower crown and her adult daughters. If it weren’t for them, I would have had to find a hotel in Mullingar. But don’t be like me! Do not do that! Do as I say, not as I do. This is purely anecdotal. 

Another time, in Germany, I couldn’t find the very hidden venue for an open mic I was set to perform at. I asked for help from somebody on the street who spoke English, and they spent half an hour with me trying to get help finding the place, translating for me. I think we walked the same block five or six times. And that’s just strangers on the street. There are so many more times that I have been met with nothing but kindness from people within my program, more than I have in some of my classes. 

I cannot help but think that people are fundamentally good. I think that evil is taught. I think that all the bad in this world is so loud that it’s easy to imagine that it’s in our nature, and that goodness is the rare treat. While goodness may be scarce, that’s an entirely manufactured reality.

Being abroad and living in close proximity to people from all over the world twice has taught me that no matter the differences in our culture, we are more alike than we are different.