Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
As I move closer and closer to the end of my final academic year, I can't help but feel the excitement of moving on towards testing all that I have learnt during the past 12 years yet feel a sense of sadness at what I will be leaving behind.
It is now the time during senior year when most senior class students will be receiving their acceptance, or rejection, letters from the universities and colleges they applied to. I consider myself grateful for the letters I have received and now comes the daunting task of choosing which to go to and which to reject.
Many of my peers have applied to universities that are abroad in the US, Canada, the UK and even in Asia. All these countries and universities are somewhat different in terms of nature, attitudes and culture from what we are used to on our little island.
What adds interest, though, is how much one would need to adjust to the difference in the way people think, act and live over there.
Yes, the partying will increase and temptations abroad are more. Yet, I believe one can grow as a person when your independence is tested while trying to live and study abroad all alone. What one needs to remember is that just because the setting is different, it is not necessary that the person needs also to change his attitudes and culture.
As I make up my mind and decide where to study, be it in the States or Canada, I make this promise that I will stay true to myself and learn and take as much as I can from the lessons the next four years will teach me. I hope all my young readers will also follow this philosophy and use it in whatever life experiences they cross paths with.
