From Nowhere to Here
Rachel Rosson
Studying abroad in Korea in 2022 at age 35
As a first-generation college student and single mother in rural America, international travel was never simple or expected. To study abroad, I had to drive ten hours round-trip to Houston, the only visa office that served my county, with my kids in tow. That journey, which seemed absurd at the time, became my first act of defiance against the limits of my community’s worldview. What struck me most was how disorienting it felt to navigate a process that others seemed to take for granted. I felt the same uncertainty that many foreigners must feel when entering my own country. That empathy stayed with me. In the end, the experience taught me that persistence, trust in the process, and careful preparation could carry me across borders literally and figuratively. Studying abroad in Asia was not only an academic milestone; it was a deliberate choice to step beyond tumbleweeds, tradition, and limitation.
Traveling abroad showed me that cultures express themselves in different rhythms. Some are loud and bold, others quiet and steady, but neither is superior. In Korea, I found myself in a society of subtle gestures and unspoken respect. I learned that true understanding doesn’t come from constant comparison but from letting a culture introduce itself on its own terms. A security guard guiding me when I was injured, or two strangers silently sharing a tangerine on the subway, spoke louder than words. In those small, sincere acts, I saw the country’s unspoken song, the way it carries its people. That experience taught me that intercultural understanding begins when we slow down, let the world invite us in sincerely, and let it reshape how we move in the world.
Studying abroad taught me resilience I never knew I had. I never thought of myself as brave, but others told me I was for flying fourteen hours alone, and then for navigating with a broken ankle on the very day I landed. That injury forced me to advocate for myself in a foreign healthcare system and college. I relied on my background in pre-med to explain medical terms to translators and later used my Liberal Arts training to help a volunteer describe how to transplant saplings in a reclaimed forest. Those moments showed me the value of being interdisciplinary: my skills didn’t belong to one field, but to all of them, and they kept me afloat abroad. I returned home realizing that flexibility across disciplines and across cultures is my greatest strength.
