For spring quarter I will be studying Abroad to Rome, Italy!

Frankie Hunter Start Date: Oct 21, 2022 - End Date: Feb 20, 2023
  • Cultural Exchange
  • Professional Development
  • Study/Degree Abroad
  • Rome, Metropolitan City of Rome, Italy

My Travel Story

by: Frankie Hunter Start Date: Oct 21, 2022 - End Date: Feb 20, 2023
  • Cultural Exchange
  • Professional Development
  • Study/Degree Abroad
The Waiting Game

  Hello Reader,
   My name is Frank Hunter, and I am going to study abroad. I want to spend this first paragraph telling you a little about myself and why I want to go on this journey. Reflecting on the title of this essay, I have felt that my whole life has been a waiting game. I began waiting to travel the world with a significant other (I assumed I'd find love and they would travel with me) or for someone to tell me if I am doing the right thing. I was waiting on the world to make my decisions for me. The waiting game made sense because the game was easy.  There is no challenge when there is no change. After the pandemic, I decided that altering my life's direction was vital to me. I stopped delaying and traveled overseas to England and Ireland alone. The trip was once in a lifetime, and I learned so much about people, culture, and history. I promised myself that I would take advantage of the life that the world has to offer. No more waiting, just living.
   The study abroad program would enhance my business and professional goals in multiple ways. I am a bartender, photographer, and child enrichment staff at a YMCA. My life goal is to own my own business, a restaurant, and understand how to create a culture within a company. One of the essential elements of this career is the connections a businessperson makes. Understanding ethics, cultures, religions, and history is necessary within these connections. This includes understanding the sociology of society and how it could enhance a business farther than most companies think they can go. This trip is crucial for me to learn, live, and experience a new culture other than my own. If you asked me years ago if I would ever voyage outside the country, let alone drive to another state, I would say: Do I look ill? Should I see a doctor? Was there an unknown warrant for my arrest when I jaywalked in Portland? Did you mistake me for Frank Sinatra? (I get that a lot.) With all jokes aside, I am lucky to spend my life seeing people for who they are. As a photographer, capturing pure moments is essential to me because those are moments that people try to hide. I have a unique way of showing people a braver, more confident version of themselves. I would incorporate this experience into my career plans by creating a new type of restaurant created on sociological knowledge and difference in sophistication.
  I have always wanted to experience life outside of the U.S because I would never truly understood a culture unless I lived in that culture. That is the unique thing about studying abroad. Yes, there are challenges, but life is about challenges. The question is, am I willing to face them? Answer: Yes, and to become my childhood idol, Lizzie McGuire. (This is what dreams are made of.)
Sincerely, Frankie Hunter
  • Rome, Metropolitan City of Rome, Italy