Homes across the world

As much as travel can broaden one’s mindset and open up eyes to new ideas and lifestyles, it takes a new mindset to see a place as your home. Growing up in Dubai, I was constantly surrounded by a myriad of cultures, simultaneously learning about and practicing new traditions. The social norm was the murmur of different languages accompanied by the smell of traditional dishes from all over the world. Naturally, coming to UCSB I thought I had it all figured out, holding the impression that coming to an “American” culture would be nothing new since I had already been exposed to the extremes in terms of cultures. On the contrary, my freshman year was comprised of moments of “how did I not realize this about the US?” to “how did I not realize this about myself?”. The culture shocks ultimately boiled down to me reflecting on my own culture and expectations of what I thought was normal, but it took me a while to be able to self-reflect.

I lived in Dubai for almost 15 years, growing up there experiencing the same routines, never questioning the small city mentality, despite the big city aspirations. I grew alongside the city, discovering all the nooks and crannies while the city rapidly urbanized. Coming to the US, I knew I wanted a change, and even more so, a refreshment from the confined space I felt I had outgrown. Despite attending an American high school, encompassing an American curriculum, there was much more to the US than the textbooks has prescribed. Every activity that people seemed to think was normal, somehow seemed incredibly foreign to me. From the idea of Greek life to the persistent use of Venmo to request exact sums of money, I felt the most basic concepts seemed to push me away. The most I ever saw of Greek life was through the movies, and buying your friends lunch was simply a common courtesy. However, the more I picked at the little things, the more I started to self-consciously criticize this new culture I was living in. Ultimately I caused myself more stress by thinking about how different things were from my home. After almost two quarters, I realized that at the end of the day, this is my new home and therefore it is what I make it. What I realized most about myself was not just in the awareness that people think I have an accent or pronounce my own name funny, but in the resistance I was holding to the American culture.

This idea of self-reflection is a key element of growth, reflected in the Mindful Reflection is Intercultural Learning by Linda S. Gross and Michael Goh. Authentic learning isn’t limited to a specific time frame, but rather continues actively. This in turn leads to greater intercultural competence as reflection acts as the means of linking concepts to personal experiences. Reflective practices refer to “one’s ability to reflect on a task or action in a process of continuous learning”. In my case, although I realized there were nuances that differed from my idea of normal, taking the time to reflect, and continuing to do so, allows me to diminish a large portion of stress I incurred upon myself. I’m finding that the more I accept other cultures as they are, and not by the preconceived notions I held or the comparisons I made to my own culture, the more I allow myself to embrace and involve myself. Ultimately achieving the most out of my time here, exposing myself to things I never thought I would take part in. Your home is what you make it after all.

Reference:
https://gauchospace.ucsb.edu/courses/pluginfile.php/2504169/mod_resource/content/1/Mindful_Reflection.pdf