I have become restless in the Big Easy. The music has swayed my emotions, the gumbo has stirred my ambitions, and the many open containers have uncorked the Mississippi of wanderlust raging within.
When I first revealed my grand patchwork of ambitions and impulses that would become three semesters of study abroad in three separate locations, I received many a “wtf” and “whoa,” via online messaging and in person. One professor even professed their “disappointment” in me for rash and naïve decision-making. In my head I thought, “wtf” and “whoa” is exactly how I want to feel about my future. So I answered the naysayers with, “Why aren’t you coming with me?”
There is a limit to how much one can learn living in one place. The more that one waits, the more time that one wastes. One can live a lifetime in the Crescent City catching every kind of Mardi Gras novelty throw or relishing every Po’ boy Fest concoction, and still not truly understand all it has to offer. That should not discourage anyone from trying, and taking risks. Loyola alumni and students like myself know that there is a worthy, memorable experience to be had during four years of living in New Orleans.
In my short time here, I look most fondly upon the insights and experiences gained from my relationships with members of the small and inspiring Loyola and New Orleans communities. But that is part of why I am leaving. I have become too comfortable, too settled, and I yearn for the challenge of something wholly new, something unknown. I will miss, among many things, the tranquility I have found in the Peace Quad, but study abroad is an adventure, a thrill-ride that I will regret not at least trying. A certain friend of mine referred to my study abroad plan as a “glorified euro-trip.” Though my ambitions may seem reckless, and I may be jumping into this with rose-colored vision, it is a very conscious leap, and my dreams are not random.
I have expectations for where my travels away from the Paris of the South will take me – to the former Soviet satellite and now burgeoning Baltic democracy of Estonia, into the chocolate-coated heart of the EU in Belgium, and under the backdrop of mountains that form the ancient crossroads between the East and the West in Bulgaria – and along with them pursuits both intellectual and deeply personal. This is not a mere “trip,” and I am not merely tripping into it. As Carlos Castaneda advised us, you have to discern the paths with “heart;” those paths without heart are of no use. And yes, my heart may be pumped with hormones and inflated conceptions of independent living, but it is my heart nonetheless, of muscle bred in New York and enlivened in New Orleans. It now beats readily for discovery and a whole New World.
Will this be the ‘transformative’ experience it is hyped up to be? I’ll let you know, but it’s more than likely. What I know now for sure is that the mere leap of faith that is applying to study abroad has already impacted my life profoundly.
And even if study abroad fails to live up to its high expectations, and we are left wondering, “Where did all the streetcars go,” we can be assured that Loyola New Orleans will readily satisfy our curiosities and wants for home. So again to y’all students of the ‘try to do it all and all over again’ variety, “why aren’t you coming with me?” You have jumped this far down the river to Loyola. Breathe in, scream out, and continue sailing away. Get on. ¡Ve! Go.
Christian Edlagan is a political science sophomore. He can be reached at [email protected]
In My Opinion is a weekly column open to any Loyola student. Those interested should contact [email protected]
