At this time last year I was jetting across the Atlantic about
to begin my AIESEC internship in Kyiv, Ukraine. It being my first time
travelling and my first time outside of Canada I wasn’t quite sure what to
expect. It ended up being an amazing adventure where I ended up meeting great
new friends, learning a lot about the world, and learning about myself as well.
Here I am, one year later, hearing about the many people starting
their own adventures this summer and I can’t help but reflect on my own
experience and how it impacted me after I got back to Canada.
I’m going to condense my advice down to a short list, and
then I’ll explain it afterwards:
1. Write about everything, take pictures of
everything
2. Don’t buy touristy souvenirs, they won’t matter
3. Grow a beard
4. Reverse culture shock sucks
5.When you meet another intern/AIESECer that you
don’t like at first, have a long conversation with them
6. Don’t travel just to say that you’ve been
somewhere
7. Use it as an excuse to make a big life change
and become the person you want to be.
Writing: in hindsight, blogging was one of the greatest
things I did when I was on my internship. I decided to write blogs, but I think
any kind of writing would be helpful. Infact, I wish I would have written more.
There are a lot of small details and inside jokes that I forgot about. My
advice to anyone on an internship right now would be to write a lot. Write
about the meaningless stuff, it’ll be valuable to you down the road. Write
about your thoughts, your mindset will change with time.
Pictures: see
above. Take A LOT of pictures. Don’t take pictures of the buildings around you
and the great tourist sites. Take pictures with friends, take pictures of that
weird supermarket down the road, take pictures of the funny public transport,
and take pictures of the stray dog that follows you home one night when you get
lost coming back from the Statue of the Lady (after all this time, I will admit
that I was lost when leading our group home….those who were there will
understand this statement). Looking at pictures of my time in Ukraine has been
one of my favourite things to do to remember my time and tell stories to
others. I didn’t take many pictures of my own, but fortunately all the other
interns did and posted them on Facebook.
Souvenirs: the
shirts I bought at tourist places, the little trinkets…they don’t really matter
at all. The magnet I have from Singapore, the metro token, the free shirt I got
from a cultural festival….those are the best souvenirs. They have stories
attached to them. They aren’t supposed to remind me of the great sites and the
country, they remind me of the small moments and in hindsight those were the
greatest moments of all. Oh ya….and remember to take something to give to
people you meet. Even if it’s something stupid you bought at the airport before
you leave. It’ll mean something to someone one day.
My beard: I miss
it.
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| Ole' beardy |
Reverse Culture
Shock: reverse culture shock is real
and it sucks hard. I had little to no culture shock when I sent to Ukraine, but
when I came back it took me over 2 months to get over it. I lied awake at night
on my comfortable bed yearning to go back to chicken feather pillow where
spiders crawled on me at night, or to the apartment with 8 people sleeping in
each room. I missed all the people I spent amazing time with, and I still do.
It will pass….but it sucks.
Staying in touch: It’s
tough. Technology makes it as easy to talk to my fellow interns and Ukrainian
friends as easy as it is to talk to someone in my own city, but that doesn’t
mean we’ve been able to stay in touch. We were the greatest of friends for 2
months but now we’ve all gone our separate ways. I’ll always remember them and
I wish I could talk to them more often, but there just seems to be something
preventing me from starting a conversation when I see them online. Maybe they’re
busy….what is there to talk about?...are they doing more important things in
their life now?....if you’re reading this, say hello some time! (for no reason
at all!)
Meeting new people: I’m
really glad that I made an effort to get to know everyone I met. I didn’t hang
out with people who were similar to me, and I didn’t avoid people that I didn’t
like at first impression. I got to learn about a lot of different cultures and
became good friends with people I thought I never would.
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| this helps you meet new people |
Not leaving Ukraine: Before
I left, I really wanted to leave Ukraine and go on a trip to Budapest and
Prague and Berlin and everywhere else. I decided not to go, and in hindsight I’m
glad. I don’t get to tell people that I went to a lot of different places, but
I had a pretty awesome experience right where I was. My advice is to not worry
about checking a bunch of cities off your list and building up your travel
resume…have the best experience you can where you are. I didn’t go to Prague,
but I went to a rainy, miserable, dirty, cold cultural festival on the edge of
Kyiv….and you’d have a really hard time convincing me that Prague would have
been a better choice.
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| Better than Prague |
Make a resolution: Make
a real resolution. Hopefully your experience will change the way you look at
the world and the way you see yourself. Unfortunately, when you get back no one
is going to know that. Everyone is going to look at you as the same person,
even though you’re not…and with time you are going to forget who you were on
your internship and forget about the changes that you decided to make. Writing
will help this, so can look back on your thoughts….but something better would
be to make a huge life change. I decided to stop drinking alcohol and become a
vegetarian. I can safely report that it was wildly ineffective. Within 2 months
I was drinking and after 6 months I was eating meat. What was left? Not a whole
lot. Make a huge life change, do something that is going to make people look at
you different. Let people know that the person who came back isn’t the same
person who left…because I can guarantee you it’s not. You’ll be hard-pressed to
ever again in your life be motivated to truly become the person you want to be
instead of the person that you’ve become and who others want you to be. It’s a
good excuse too…..use it.
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| <3 |
