Every year around the New
Year I like to sit back with a cup of warm tea in my hands and reflect on all
that has happened; this year I have more to reflect on than usual. I
experienced so many new and wonderful things in the past twelve months, I jokingly
question if everything in 2013 really happened. For the first time in my life I
have lived for an extended period away from home. By “home” I do not simply
mean the house where my parents live, I am also referring to New York City as a
whole.
While in high school, Manhattan
was my preferred place to “hang out,” not only because it’s entertaining and
chic, but for more practical reasons, such as attending school in midtown and
working on the west side. Although Manhattan is homey and familiar Brooklyn
holds a special place in my heart because it was where my college education
began. I spent my freshman year at St. Francis College. I took classes with
professors who in a short period of time shaped my life for the better. Despite
the fantastic academic rigor, the school did not offer the degree program I was
interested in. Eventually I knew I needed to transfer. At the end of the spring
semester of my freshman year I was given the opportunity to go on a trip to
Spain with nine other students from St. Francis.
The “Spain trip” was not
just a trip, it was a cultural immersion experience! We lived two hours North
West of Madrid in a town called Segovia. For five weeks we took classes and had
weekly excursions to neighboring areas. In that short time my classmates and I
learned so much and grew to be more culturally well rounded people. I have
always known traveling is a priceless experience, but living in a different
country gave me a perspective I would have difficulty acquiring otherwise. The
trip enriched my life in ways I am still discovering.
Prior to the “cultural
immersion experience” I submitted a transfer application to Arcadia University.
While in Spain I was enthralled in all the wonderful activities, I did not pace
around waiting for an acceptance or rejection. One morning before class I
checked my email expecting nothing out of the ordinary, but to my surprise I
received an acceptance letter welcoming me to Arcadia. When my classmates asked
me why I chose to transfer, I told them of my future career goals involving a degree
in Scientific Illustration. The program is so rare most people don’t even
realize it exists.
Arcadia is not a
commutable distance from NYC, so upon returning to the US, I had three weeks to
prepare for “on campus living.” Once again I was beginning fresh! I remember my
first day vividly; moving into the dorms reminded me of stepping off the air
plane and into a foreign country. Everything was unfamiliar and everyone, a
stranger. It was a bit frightening on my first day, but as soon as I began
making friends and unpacking the campus quickly morphed into a comfortable
living environment. It took me roughly a month to adjust, coming from “the city
that never sleeps,” where there are close to five hundred subway stops
connecting four boroughs, the lack of transportation was strange, to say the
least, and the pace of life was much slower. As a New Yorker, dorming in Pennsylvania
is like living in a foreign country. My time in Spain prepared me in ways I did
not expect and this was one of them.
~ Rosa Lovesky
