I have never felt fuzzy about myself. Coming to college, I had all the self-confidence needed to uncover my veils of ignorance and to discover new truths. Almost a year and a half later, I am convinced I knew more about myself and the world when I was 14 than I do now at 20.
No matter how much fresh air I breathe sitting by the Seal, whenever I walk into the residence halls I am greeted by my fellow students’ obsession with air purification. If you are a returning student living in the residence halls, you already know that air purifiers are an invasive species.
They say college is the perfect place to meet people, build your network and even fall in love. But from the looks of it, higher education might be the one global institution manufacturing frenzied, robotic, so-called academic citizens ready to take you up on the “we live in a simulation” debate.
Whether new or familiar with Miami University’s landscapes, incoming students have one thing in common: the hopes and fears they bring with them as they are leaving what once was and entering a new and important era in their lives.
International students at Miami University make up only a small portion of the student body. To be exact, there are 1,470 of us according to the Office of International Scholars and Services, and this makes it possible for us to cut slack to those who forget about including us in the conversation, the public space, the policies, initiatives and the student body.
I owe my transformative Miami journey to some of the great people I met here — people with whom I had dinner on Wednesdays after class last semester and who still never fail to bring about a smile on my face whenever I see them.