Essay Exellence

8/11/2019 Essay Exellence

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Essay for Excellence Scholarship

International Realizations

Daniel Alejandro Caballero Cerbn

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Ten months ago I started a journey that would change my life in ways I could not imagine.

On the evening of September the first, after 18 hours of flight, I arrived to Linz airport. I

must admit I was pretty much shocked, it was hard for me to believe that for the first time

I was on my own. I have lived outside my parents house for a long time before coming

here, but never further than a 2 hours commute; this time there was no backup plan, no

safety net, I was facing this country the same way a castaway would look into the see,

anxious for a sign of help.

Finally this help came in the form of a distracted REFI member, who wasnt able to locateme as I arrived but, luckily, found me before I was able to call a taxi. From there on he will

become my first impression of Austria. He was very close to the expectations I had from

the people in this country, bigger than me, whiter than me, slightly taller than me; but

putting aside every physical stereotype I could attribute to this person, his attitude could

not match my expectations, I must admit I expected someone cold and taciturn (to speak

the truth we were not able to establish a very fluid conversation but it was more due to

my initial shock rather than his assiduity to talk) but this was not the case, he was veryopen, interested in what I could tell him and I even dare to say a little nervous, just as I

also was.

Then I made my first key realization, not a particularly original one I must admit but very

important nonetheless; the people here may look different, may speak different, they may

even live different as I do, but at the end of the day they share my worries, my emotions

and my thoughts. Living in an alien society is not a reason to alienate the people who lives

in it. I could no longer expected the people here to behave as something else than as

human beings, which in very different conditions can report a very similar mental state

when affronted to the same stimulus.

As the months went by I found myself struggling to understand the Austrian dialect, which

proved to be rather intricate and not at all alike to its original counterpart, German.


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Although I have taken several curses in order to have a sufficient knowledge of the later

language, I was not able to maintain a proper conversation with any Austrian, not because

they did not understand me but due to the fact that I was not able to recognize the

altered phonetic of the words and my knowledge of the regionalisms was null.

I was aware of this challenge long before coming to Austria but I did not expected this

barrier to be that big, I realized it was easier for people who did not have previous

knowledge of German to learn dialect than it was for me, since I was misguided by my

preconceived schemes and rules. In that moment I found my second realization:

Every fan of the oriental philosophy, or that at least had seen a Kung Fu movie, may

remember this particular scene where the apprentice approaches the master asking him

for lessons, telling him how far he has reached in his training; the master does not

immediately answers, he rather offers to serve tea to the apprentice. As the apprentice

accepts, the master starts pouring tea in the apprentices cup until it overflows, the

disciple tries to stop him but the master continues and tell the apprentice he cannot fill a

cup that is already full.

Though I understood the meaning of this proverb since the first time I heard it, I had never

felt that it happened to me before this experience with the dialect. I knew what I must do,in order to me to understand the dialect I would have to start learning it from scratch, just

as I would do with a new language. It was not easy, till now I would not say I am able to

speak it, but my understanding of it has undoubtedly increased.

This challenge was not only limited to the dialect but also to the courses in the university,

to my social skills, to my sports condition, to my English and my general knowledge. In

Mexico I was very comfortable with the level of this abilities I had acquired. I was top of

my generation in several of this fields, but as I came here I discovered people who are not

only as good as me, but some of them even better. As an example, the study methodology

here is way more complex than what I was used to, the professors really expect the

students to do an independent research of the topics covered in class, since the material


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of the class has proven not to be enough in order to pass the course. There came my third

realization:

It is a very common thing between intercultural people to compare their different

societies, I have found myself in different occasions doing comparisons involuntarily. One

may say that traveling to another country is like putting your own one in trial. I have

discovered that this not only applies to societies or cultures but also to ourselves. I have

learned so much of myself this past months that now I am more confident of the things I

am able to do, but more importantly, I have a better idea where my limits are. I have

learned a lot of my strong features and my weaker ones. I used to be like the big fish who

lives in a bowl thinking it is the biggest fish there is, just because it has never been in the

sea and therefore has never seen bigger fish. This trip has allowed me to broaden my

horizons and to settle my bar higher. Then it was my turn to decide if I am up to the

challenge.

Austria is a very interesting place, not only by its precious landscape, about which I have

constantly found myself wondering and admiring in places like Hallstatt or Innsbruck, or its

cultural centers, like Vienna and Salzburg, but also because its strategic position in the

center of Europe which has enabled me to travel easily to different countries with relative

easiness. It may not sound surprising for the European habitants to be able to travel to

other countries, but for us in Mexico City is a 20 hour travel by car to reach the closest

border, being that here in Linz is less than two. In this ten months I have visited more

countries than in my 20 years before coming.

I have experienced a colorful spectrum of traditions and places, in a quantity and way I

have never lived before. That led me to reach another of my realizations, perhaps a very

philosophical one: Beauty must not necessarily be an abstract concept which follows

certain rules and only presents in a characteristic way. Beauty is in the emotion of

discovery, everything unknown for an individual is, by consequence, extraordinary; a

beautiful explosion of new flavors, forms and ideas which may not be found in other


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places. The same characteristics which make a place unique, also make it beautiful in the

way that it presents experiences that cannot be compared to any previous counterpart.

To finalize I would like to share a realization I made before coming to Austria but which I

believe is of great importance to any exchange student. It may sound a bit pessimistic but

I have reasons to believe is just the opposite: Nothing is forever.

Change is something that we say everyday all around us, sometimes we are not able to

perceive it because we change at the same speed in order to adapt to this changes. We

are raised to have some reserves concerning to changes; even though we highly

appreciate them when we are in a bad streak, we do not want things to change when we

are enjoying the circumstances. I may sound overdramatic when I state that nothing is

forever but I have learned to appreciate change without concerning if in short term it

could affect me in a positive or negative way; because I firmly believe that in the long run

all changes will prove to be beneficial.

I applied this philosophy of embracing the changes during my stay here in Linz and I am

widely surprised with my newly discovered resilience to change. I must admit that I did

not think of myself as someone who would manage change in an efficient way. But I have

been able to overcome many barriers I have found during this year. And it is all because Ichanged in order to reach my goals.

Change is one of the reasons that took me here, in the other side of the world to try

something different, and change will certainly bring me back to my country very soon. I

hope other students could share my perspective; it would be very hard because, in the

short term, change is going to separate them from the new friendships they have just

made; I would even dare to affirm that in the farewell party there would be people that

will write in the shirt of their friends Never change. It may sound innocent but from my

perspective it is the worst thing you can wish to another person, because it would mean

to deny the very first thing that define us as humans: our ability to adapt to changes. If I

were to write on one of this shirts I would write in each and every one of them: Keep

changing, keep exchanging.


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