The World is Quite Big

Buongiorno ...

It is with regret that we notify you that you have not been selected by the JFRC Scholarship Committee for an award for the Spring 2012 semester.

Unfortunately, we had only extremely limited funds from which to distribute awards for Spring 2012 compared to the generous amount which had been available for scholarships for the Fall 2011 semester. As a consequence, many worthy candidates did not receive any grant.

Despite this news, we trust that you will find your Spring semester in Rome an exhilarating and inspiring one, and that you will reap a fruitful experience from your time abroad.

                                                                                                Sincerely,

                                                                                                        JFRC Staff     
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Unfortunately, I was not selected to receive any of the scholarships I had applied for in late October (see blog post: Scholarships - Part II). I kind of expected this outcome. Considering my usual informal writing and comparing it to my scholarship essay, the latter comes off quite contrived. The ideas I wanted to express through the essay seemed to lack a sense of naturalism, passion, and uniqueness. It lacked what my usual, natural writing had: an identity. I guess I was more nervous and uncertain about writing the essay than I had realized. I lost myself in the midst of cliché phrases and common words in hopes of producing something agreeable to all. I produced something generic and uninteresting. What I wrote did not work in my favor.

Of course I'm disappointed in not having received a scholarship. Nonetheless, I still consider myself to be very fortunate. I'm lucky enough to still have the opportunity to study abroad and see more of the world than what some can only imagine. Sure, it would have been great to have received a monetary scholarship that would have enabled further travel opportunities. However, I want to see this situation in a more positive light.

In a sense, life has proposed a challenge for me: to experience another part of the world's culture without (or barely) depending on money. I think it's possible. I think this would be a great challenge to pursue. Why? It would allow me to have a closer experience with a culture, its people, and what hospitality means throughout the world. What I'm referring to is the sort of basic humanity we hope to find in strangers when we're lost or find ourselves in need of help. I think that by befriending the locals and sharing a common ground I can find myself welcomed into their homes.

I think that such a scenario would afford me experiences comparable (if not more valuable) to what any supplementary monetary amount could afford me. I could find myself eating with an Italian family that includes many cousins and neighbors with the vibrancy of the Italian lifestyle on a normal week night... Or perhaps I'll find myself helping catch that day's lunch or dinner off the coasts of Valencia, Spain or perhaps Marseilles, France. What I really want to do is have a picnice, something as simple as bread, wine, and cheese on the side of a ride beside a lavender field in the Provençal region of France. Whatever the case may be, I will definitely make the best out of what I can during my time in Europe in the following months to come. The world is huge and the variety of possibilities it can afford me is just as grand, therefore I shouldn't lose hope. Everything I want to see is still in my grasp. I just have to work a little harder.