After twelve hours, I finally arrived at Georgetown from Switzerland, the only country I have ever lived in. As I stepped out of the airplane, my skin started to get wet and sticky, it smelled weird and I had difficulty breathing. First I thought I had a terrible disease, but then I realized I was simply experiencing humidity for the first time. Very strange sensation indeed.
Coming to Georgetown I was unsure of how to prepare for the unknown. On my first night, my roommate suggested we have dinner at 5 p.m. I thought she was joking. 5 p.m.? Where I come from, 5 p.m. is snack time, an early dinner is at 7:30 and “normal” dinnertime is 9 p.m.
I befriended a girl from Texas who was experiencing culture shock, despite not moving to a different country. That doesn’t necessarily make it easier. As it turned out, she was of Mexican origin, and lived in a town where a majority of the population was Hispanic. Georgetown was as little like home for her as it was for me.
Among the other wide-eyed, nametag-wearing freshmen, I participated in the New Student Orientation activities hoping to acclimatize myself to my new environment. We heard extracts of our classmates’ application essays, and I felt less alone—we were all struggling in this new environment. I wanted to ask everyone how they were dealing with this new experience because we all seemed to have such extraordinary life stories that have taken us from our homes on the other side of the country and world.
I am fascinated by Americans’ friendliness and ability to talk to complete strangers. Back home, one assumes that speaking to strangers is rude, and that focusing conversation on a group of pre-established friends is the polite approach until one is formally introduced by a common acquaintance. I found myself feeling overwhelmed in this new social environment. I was the awkward freshman standing in the corner with her solo cup, unsure of what to do.
After a while, I started to be more open to others, more talkative and less afraid to start a conversation with someone I didn’t know. Culture shock has made me evolve. Some of my new friends tell me that they too had changed since arriving at Georgetown. Some of them began to act particularly well-mannered, some acted less weird, some began drinking like fishes. It’s normal to change on the surface; we are all here to evolve.
Culture shock is a positive experience. I am learning to embrace things foreign to me and allow them to broaden my horizons to become a more complex person. I have begun to enjoy the risk of confronting different people and cultures and stepping out of my comfort zone. I have become stronger.
While waiting in line for convocation, I didn’t know anyone around me. While I’m normally a shy person, I managed to start a conversation with the two boys behind me. It might have been a little awkward at the beginning, but a week later, we became really good friends.
Different does not mean worse or better. It means different. In a class of 1,500 students, there are more than enough people I can relate to by the fact that we are in a new situation adapting to change.
