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March 28, 2024

  • Visiting Author: Sheila Squillante
    Last week, the visiting author, Sheila Squillante, presented the art of creative non-fiction at BGSU. Last year, her memoir came out. From Chatham University in Pittsburgh, PA, Squillante visited BGSU, last week. Previously, she has published collections on poetry, but most recently, her memoir, All Things Edible, Random and Odd  was published in 2023. “I […]
  • Petrofiction Review: Oil on Water
    Here’s my review of Oil on Water by Helon Habila – a petrofiction novel which won The Commonwealth Prize and Caine Prize. For context, petrofiction stems from petroleum and fiction. A specific text that focuses on petroleum culture in political economics and environmental impact. Although Habila’s novel begins with a journalist investigating a kidnapping, the […]
Spring Housing Guide

Travel broadens horizons and perspective

I have been fortunate enough to travel a good amount in my short 19 years. My grandparents, and my parents for that matter, find joy in exploring other places and that has been passed down to me. While acknowledging that I have been able to travel more than most, I feel that I haven’t traveled enough. There is so much more out there for me to see and things to do that wouldn’t be possible here. I want to keep traveling as much as possible.

Honestly, it kind of makes you feel small; heading up onto a plane in a place you recognize, spending hours feeling a little claustrophobic and ending up somewhere that’s suddenly very different from your hometown. It puts more context on your life. While recognizing that a world outside your town, your state or your country exists and isn’t some abstract concept, can be a little jarring, it’s a good kind of jarring. Our world is becoming smaller in a lot of ways, and we need to keep up with that. We can’t keep focusing fully on ourselves, when American decisions can affect the rest of the world. I think the best way to keep from becoming too obsessed with ourselves is to travel.

There are pros and cons to traveling, and I know that not everyone can afford it, but getting somewhere that broadens your horizons is a good experience. Even though I want everyone to become worldly in some aspect, just traveling out of your state can be an illuminating experience.

If there is any time to travel it would be during college, if you can find the time or the funds. If the opportunity is available to you, take it. We get stuck in a little bubble of similar people with similar opinions and similar experiences. Forcing yourself out of your comfort zone and putting yourself in a place that isn’t familiar with people who have grown differently than you is an eye-opening experience.

Travel gives you a wider perspective and helps you become more open-minded. You get more flexible and realize how many things you take for granted. I spent time in Paris with my grandparents and I ate and did things I never would have had I not been in a different country. I was offered a glass of wine in a restaurant, despite the fact that I was twelve. Just little things like this can get you thinking critically. Why does letting children have small, watered down glasses of wine work in France and not America? Why is alcohol seen as more social and less adult in France compared to America? Who is doing something right, if not both or neither?

Our world continues to get smaller with the Internet and better ways to travel. Become someone who is adapting to that world. Take it upon yourself to see more than what you already have and broaden your horizons in a really exciting, exhausting and ultimately rewarding way. Also, you’ll make all your friends jealous.

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