Who said kids from the hood couldn’t travel abroad: The importance of exposure and the shift on perspective of life! PART I

(PART I)

I grew up on 7 Mile and Outer Drive (Y’all have heard this from me before -I rep hard!); right on Detroit’s Westside. In the beginning, the neighborhood was occupied by retired school teachers, and government employees (like my mother) and for the most part… Life was good. However, as I entered into my pre-teen/teenage years, the issues around me became very clear. Homes became abandoned and people lost their jobs. The blocks that once provided me the safe and picture perfect childhood started to look like a battlefield, only the side I stood on (or lived) was clearly marked as the defeated. According to statistics, I was never suppose to leave the square mile of my childhood memories.

Once, when I was about 8 years old, I traveled by car with a childhood friend to Canada for her birthday, we stayed at a hotel, that felt like heaven on earth to a kid -Wheels Inn. That was my first time out of the country and Canada for many years was the only country I have been. When you’re from Michigan, especially Detroit… Canada was a given as a child! Before travel laws and the uproar on immigration turned sour, we used to cross the ambassador bridge or travel through the tunnel on a hot summer day, just for fun. 

It wasn’t until I got to college that I started thinking about the possibility of traveling abroad. When you’re the first to do things, usually the nose is turned up and the fear of your loved-ones becomes obvious. Here’s the shocking truth: My very first flight was at 21 years old, though I have traveled to many states by car/train. I signed myself up for a distance learning program at Eastern Michigan University. Basically, I took a one-credit ART General Elective class in New York for a week. I traveled with other EMU students and for 7 days we visited arts museums, and attended broadway plays. It wasn’t study abroad, but it was my first encounter of traveling for non-family related events.

My mother was very great at teaching me about exposure. She worked extra hours so I could be apart of Girl Scouts, Dance Classes and Summer Camps as a child. Though I may have been surrounded by the struggles of my community, I was for the most part, getting a taste of life outside of my hood as well.

According to The Institute of International Education’s Open Doors Report and the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics: During the Academic Year of 2015-2016, only 5.9% of African American Students traveled abroad compared to 71.6% Caucasian students.

As an undergraduate student, my only goal was to graduate from college. Anything extra was not a priority. I was holding down the responsibility of paying rent and utilities for an apartment near campus, as well as working three jobs just to have enough coins to supply unexpected needs for Silver Foxy, my 2001 Dodge Stratus Hoop Ride that got me from Point A to Point B and YOU BET NOT THINK ABOUT POINT C! I didn’t have time to travel abroad, nor did I have time to think about it, OR how much it would have costed me out of pocket, because my grades were not exceptional enough to receive scholarship dollars and to be honest, I wasn’t worried about Global Citizenship.

I traveled abroad for the first time, last year; May 2017.  That’s right, this little black girl that throws up the Blade Icewood “Boss up and Get this Money” traveled to a different country; AND IT WASN’T CANADA! It was a study abroad trip hosted through my master’s program that introduced the concept on what it means to be a “Global Citizen.” At the time, I thought by the end of this study abroad trip I would know a lot about what it meant to be a global citizen and how traveling abroad could help individuals obtain global citizenship. I was wrong, I didn’t know the half and I didn’t recognize then, that it would take me almost a year after that first abroad encounter to understand truly want Global Citizenship meant. 

My study abroad trip was life-changing, to say the least; we traveled to Quito, Ecuador with our professor, who happens to be from Ecuador. We observed the education systems in Quito, Educador as well as toured some of the greatest attractions in the city. We ate authentic food and even enjoyed the nightlife. In 10 short days, I traveled to a completely different country for the first time, lived amongst the native people of Ecuador, tried food I had never had before: Like fish cooked whole, bones and head included. I even rode a horse up and down a mountain top and I had the opportunity to spend the day at the hot springs -basically, we chilled in the natural waters of a mountain! So what happens to a person once they lose their “abroad-ginity ?” Because I was afforded the opportunity through school for this experience, I understand why institutions and researchers push for students to travel outside of their country’s boundaries!

Below I have listed 5 things I am grateful for regarding my first abroad experience:

1. Do it for the Culture – My culture isn’t the only culture to exist, it would actually be ignorant to live life without appreciating and learning cultures other than my own. Exploring all of the cultures that represent people across the world is a privilege that shouldn’t be taken for granted. What other way to learn than to respectfully visit the places where different cultures reside.
2. The World is about Perspective– Our world, society and way of thinking can be cloudy. With the U.S. and the political climate, we find ourselves in the societal norms. If its not nice, its mean, If its not right, its left. So forth and So forth. For me, Traveling abroad helped me to confirm that just because WE do something ONE WAY doesn’t mean that we SHOULD expect others to do the same. What’s normal in Ecuador may not be normal in United States, but that doesn’t make either way wrong!
3. Food for the Soul– I believe that food and travel go hand and hand; and if you really want to immerse yourself in culture, your first stop is the food! Culture is spoken through love and no matter the culture or the food, we all know that FOOD makes everyone happy!
4. Barriers dont mean breakdowns– The hardest moments that I had to face during my time aboard were moments of Language Barriers. For the first time ever in my life, I was in an environment where I did not speak the native tongue. Some of you may already know, but I speak two languages: English and Black Vernacular Slang! To be in a place where you do not speak the language can be very uncomfortable, this helped me recognize the same uncomfortableness that one may have when traveling to the U.S. Though barriers may require rerouting, that does not mean you have to breakdown.
5. Nature is Natural Beauty- I do nothing but disclose MY TRUTH/OPINION on this blog: America is so commercialized that we have stripped away all of the natural beauty of this particular land. What I enjoyed most about aboard experiences is the authentic beauty of the earth. I could walk outside the hotel door in Ecuador and face a mountain top!

I was one student, but imagine all the other students who navigate through their teenage years, college experience and young adulthood without the breathtaking moments of being abroad. Traveling abroad for the first time gave me the confidence and the knowledge to continue the abroad movement. Not only that, it provided a sense of eagerness to continue to learn more, even from outside my own home/culture/way of living. So once again, what happens after a person loses their “abroad-ginity ?” – STAY TUNED FOR PART TWO!