End-Of-Year Reflections
This year certainly wasn't what any of us expected. Here's what we learned from the world during this unprecedented time.
Jonah
Despite my trip to Seville, Spain being cancelled I learned a lot through the process of becoming prepared for the trip. Having gone as far as booking my flight has made me very aware of all the preparation needed the next time I decide to travel. Applying for a scholarship through CIEE was the first time I had to write essays about myself and I know that experience will be beneficial when writing college essays or applying for opportunities in general. Becoming far more comfortable in Spanish before I was going to go taught me the commitment I needed to integrate Spanish into my life outside of class. Taking extra classes with Megan and Nick allowed me to utilize Spanish speaking in a way I hadn’t been able to learn through my classes before. Getting advice from a peer who had actually been to Seville was especially useful for me to learn specific things about Seville I wouldn't have learned otherwise. Coronavirus has shown me more than anything the unpredictability of travel, and that there are many factors in travel you often can’t account for.
Ahlyisen
Flex Friday this year was crazy! I had two completely different projects starting out, one which was a rock band group (it didn't last long) and then my photography/photojournalism project which is the project I followed through with. I traveled to Jamaica, Mexico, the Bahamas. I learned about different cultures and it was my first time really learning how to use my camera. After that I continued to learn about cameras and all their settings and eventually got a new camera which was amazing. I believe it genuinely stepped up my game. By then i was starting to learn how to edit my photos in Adobe software which was a great learning curve where I really started to know how to use my camera fully. Coronavirus just came out to the world around that time as well...as it grew closer to Maine, schools shut down and I had to find ways to change and better my project for the circumstances I was in, which luckily wasn't that hard! I used this time to really teach my eye and my hand at photography, I learned how to fully edit my photos, learned about color distortion and other such things. it wasn't a bad year but it definitely wasn't easy. I learned, I failed, but overall it was successful to me and I believe that's what Flex Friday is all about.
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Leyli
Obviously, our expectations and reality can be very different. I expected to be in Spain in a week, to be earning my diver’s certification this fall, and to be growing independent as I explore other cultures. As I was planning my gap year, I felt the lovely support of Nick, Megan, and Brian and the other members of our project, and they were behind every big decision I made. When we all realized that most of our projects wouldn’t happen for at least a year, it was both comforting and painful to know that these people were right there experiencing it with me. It is daunting to prepare for travel without this team, but with the experience I now have, from finding the cheapest flights to fundraising to communicating with potential hosts, I will be much better off. I hope that Baxter International will have a strong presence next year, and I am excited to be an alumnus and share my future experiences with the next generation of members. Because I didn’t have the chance to travel this year, I have been thinking back to the times when I did and reveling in my memories. I think everyone who has been fortunate enough to travel should be doing that right now. Attached are some of my favorite memories (in photo form) from when I went to Honduras in 2017 and when I drove across the West Coast in 2018. If you have some memories like mine that you want to live once more, I highly suggest looking through your pictures for a while and remembering how you felt at that moment. It’s the best we can do right now! Good luck to future members, and those continuing next year!
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