It has been fun interacting with you all during these past few months. My time here in Italy has shown me how important it is to keep an open mind when interacting with people from different cultural backgrounds. I remember walking in a garden outside my apartment here and thinking to myself, “the world is a vast place filled with people from all different experiences.” While I am an American living abroad, this journey has made me feel more of a global citizen. There are so many things to learn from others, yet we must remember to keep an open mind and question everything. While this may seem slightly paradoxical, this has been a long-standing philosophy of mine: try to absorb as much information as possible, process it, question it, then make it your own. For example, I had not expected to experience different ways of doing science, but here I am learning new tricks to take back with me to graduate school and beyond. I still have four months left in Italy, but I am sad that my experience is halfway over. I hope that our video calls were insightful in your careers after high school, and I am looking forward to our last chat in a couple of weeks!
I would highly suggest you all to apply for the Fulbright Program.
