Study away: Reunion Island deepens love for home
 |
| Pearson |
Laura Pearson, 21, is a senior at Missouri State University with a major in religious studies and a minor in French. She spent the spring semester (January-June) at Reunion Island, France (off eastern coast of Madagascar).
After 48 hours of travelling in January, landing in a humid, 80-degree, tropical environment is what you might call an "abrupt transition."
English, also, was not an option in this African/Indian/Chinese/French Creole society.
I was never scared to go to Reunion Island: I've wanted adventure more than anything for as long as I can remember, and this past semester did anything but let me down.
What I didn't expect was how much I would miss home. I was surrounded by beautiful cultures and languages and this incredible mix of tradition and religious belief; I should have been in heaven. And in a way, I was.
But something unexpected: I felt more than ever a kinship to my home, a pride in where I come from, and an urge to work and strengthen the community I didn't know I loved until I left.
From open-air fresh fish markets and waking at 4:30 a.m. to get to the top of a mountain by dawn, to standing out as an ethnic minority for the first time, this semester has been quite a ride.
Along the way, I've learned to trust my instinct and have faith that things do work out.
I consider myself a very realistic person, but who said that realistic has to be boring?
I didn't come back with a "quenched thirst," but rather an even stronger desire to go, do, see, understand and change things for the better