Well, this is it! 13 months of my American adventures is over. I still can’t explain what was it: Miracle? Reality? Challenge? Adventure? Experience? Success? Professional and Personal Development? I can continue this list and it is difficult to distinguish what was the most important part and what was not. I assume it is a combination of everything. I am pretty sure that I will start to feel and understand all the outcomes and results of this year later, not now, not momentarily, and I like this feelings! I wasn’t very active with taking notes throughout the year and it is really hard to remember some of the moments, but it was an amazing year for sure. Couple years ago I came up with self understanding that I can survive everywhere, I just need to have right people around me and everything will be alright. It is hard to explain and imagine how difficult it was for me and my lovely fiancé, Misha, to be apart for this year which feels like centuries when you are so far from each other. However, we proudly made it! We trust each other, support each other and we were just strong in our feelings and decisions. It was very uncomfortable not to have my supportive parents and friends near, every time I was having difficulties, but they were in my heart and in my mind! I also made such great friends here. I am saying friends!!! It is amazing now to know that in different places all over the world I have a friend that I can text, or call, or visit and we will laugh again as we used to. They are also my professional friends, colleagues, mentors and life teachers! I am so grateful to know them! I am flying back with the mix of feelings and different ideas. My mind is all over the place right now, I am excited and sad at the same time! I am happy and nervous! Honestly, I thought that this year will help me to understand what exactly I want to do in my career and personal life in the next couple years. In contrast, I am getting home more confused, just because I saw so many different opportunities and doors that I want to open. It sounds that I am not a goal oriented person? That will be so wrong understanding of my words. It is just all about thinking outside of the box and looking forward beyond the traditional plans. Before travelling to the USA, a lot of people were mentioning that I will have a cultural shock. Well, that took place, but it weren’t traditional images as a lot of my native citizens have. If you don’t want to hear uncomfortable questions like “Do you guys drink vodka for breakfast, lunch and dinner in Russia?” or “Are there just snow all over the place in Russia?”, stop thinking the same stereotypes, that Americans eat just fast food or that America is a country from movies. No it is not! I am so happy that I got a chance to live for a while in absolutely 2 different part of the country! My host Alma Matter (University of Illinois at Springfield) is situated in a pretty rural, spread out area with corn fields around. Sounds not fun? Well, you need to look deep! There are a lot of things going on (check the website that my friend created), people are so nice and helpful. They really do care “how I am doing today”, they will follow up if you have any problems and will do their best to help. Yes, sometimes, they are not with a very broad prospective, they have never been outside even of their county, but they are so natural, so easy going, and so human. After my graduate (non degree) program I spent 3,5 months in the amazing city of San Francisco, doing my business and marketing internship at SFCI and TLThrift in particular. I will post my feedback separately about this experience a little bit later. Anyway, I am already in Moscow. I am happy and excited to see my family in couple hours. However, I know that I am getting back with absolutely new standards of life, views, impressions, goals and expectation! It’s gonna be a great new chapter of my life!
Posted on: Fri, 30 Aug 2013 11:08:43 +0000
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