In this case, literally involving my major–International Relations.

This was a question that popped up a few times, so here goes: Why I decided on taking International Relations as my Major?

You always hear someone say that travelling, seeing and going to some place new, changes you. As cheesy or cliché as it comes off to be, it is true.

Whether you just go to a different city, to a different part of the country you live in, or if you go abroad, you do come back changed. The change can be huge or small, good and even bad. Though usually, and hopefully, not so much in a negative way.

Each person is different and is affected by the world around them differently, but there is a change is how you view things, whether it’s in your own life or in the big picture.

You could come to find out that even though you always spoke about getting away from your family or the town you live in, you were homesick and happy when you returned. Maybe, you were never the type to stray from the privacy of your own car when up and about, but later discovered that you enjoy walking or biking around the city, or even that the set arrival times of public transport such as trains or buses is convenient in comparison to not knowing if you’re going to be late to that class or date.

You could come to the realization that that one type of dish you always avoided–because it looked funny, smelled weird, or contained something you never liked–is actually extremely delicious and has been bumped to your Top 10 list. You might even come to find that the art piece you saw in that one museum has inspired you to pursue a different career path.  Or maybe, you’ve decided that you want to become more involved in community service or charities.

The way a change occurs in a person who travels is truly endless and unpredictable.

I travel a lot, ever since I was extremely young.
Heck, the first time I ever went abroad was only 1 year old and have since then travelled to over 63 countries and 6 different continents!

In all seriousness though, I have been travelling across the globe since before the age of 10. When you are little, you don’t really realise the changes you go through and how much of an impact these things have on you.

I remember that all I really cared about the first few years of travelling was that I was having fun and I loved it.

Around the time I started 5th year in primary school, I started to realise just how much I loved travelling and being abroad, as well as how much it really affected my outlook on life. I started to look at it more so from only having fun to how things work or things can change; that things were different than from where I came from. As the years went by from that point on, I started to get more involved–whether it be community service, non-profits, or political and government issues–in anything that I could to get more of an outlook and take advantage of how globalised the world truly was.

I lived abroad in all my years of schooling, from primary to junior high and even to high school (and now university). I’ve lived and went to school in 6 different countries, most being in Europe and North America, with Japan being the only Asian country I lived in during high school for a while. This all allowed me to see how things were different in other part of the world, and how different the culture and people were when you weren’t just travelling as tourist but truly immersing yourself into the local society.

The summer before I started my freshman year in high school, I was travelling around the world again. This time to Asia and the last country on my trip was, ironically, to Japan.

I saw there how other countries, how internationalisation, truly had an impact on how these people lived, how it shaped their countries into what it is today, and how the people there react to it all.

It was then that it hit me, that I realized that

“this is where I want to be”.

I wanted to be involved internationally, I wanted help make an impact on the world in some form, whether it be small or huge, I wanted to be part of the chain reaction.

I was told that International Relations would be a good major as well, which is one I truly considered, but in the end I did not want to focus solely on such a specific area. With International Relations, I will be able to truly delve into different countries and hope to comprehend the complexity of it all and the ties it has with internationalisation.

I realized that majoring in International Relations was the best possible method for me to truly take advantage of this and achieve my goals.