Study Abroad in Hong Kong
By Jason Connell

Everything leading up to Hong Kong was a blur. My life went like this: Leave a girl who I was still in love with; drive the 22 hours back to Boston for Christmas with the family, head up north to Montreal for New Years with friends; jump on a jet for China. There was no room to breathe. So as I was strapped in, flying thousands of feet above the water, m mind finally caught up with my body, and I was forced to swallow back the fear of spending the next half year in Hon Kong. Looking back I can safely say that I was not prepared at all! I hadn't packed well, hadn't done any research and hadn’t tied up the loose ends of my personal life. Yet here I was on this plane, trying not to cry. I took a sleeping pill and that was that.

Jump forward in time 6 months. I am back in JFK airport, waiting for my connection home to Boston. I check my voicemail, and there are two messages. One, my parents calling to tell me that they will be picking me up and they can’t wait to see me, the other, a friend from home wondering "How was Hong Kong?"  

"How was Hon Kong?" that question would go on to plague me. In ever really knew know to answer it. For people my age, I used to talk about the wild night life and how the classes were laughably easy. For adults I used to talk about how I view the US in a new regard - freedoms that we take in stride, the Chinese can't even dream of, and how this makes me view the US in a new light. I used to illustrate this point by talking about a presentation I gave in which I called George Bush a 'shit-head" and everyone in the room, professor included, was direly shocked and appalled that someone would speak of their leader like this. I would then go on to talk about how this sort of outspokenness was tolerated in Hong Kong - people could critique their government they just didn't - but that in Beijing, people could be shot on the spot for this type of proclamation if it were about the Chinese government.

But really, these stories and anecdotes though important to me, were just clever social tricks I used to get off the hook of explaining what this trip really meant to me. The reason I had canned responses to the question, was because the trip was too personal to explain. But now, having digested it and infused the experience into who I am, I can share a bit of the fear, passion, and inspiration that this trip really was to me.

The fear struck me on both a personal and global level. I remember in the third week of being in Hong Kong, I decided to venture into rural mainland China on my own, without a working cell phone, computer, ticket back to Hong Kong, or even a vague grasp of the language. The fear of being on a 12 hour bus ride through the night with no one who speaks English anywhere near you, and not even being sure that you’re on the right bus, is inexplicable. The fear you experienced for the world, when you arrive to the village, and see a mother rummaging through trash to feed her and her baby scraps of fish and bits of rice, and then think back to the million dollar apartments you just saw in Hong Kong, is worse.

Fortunately the passion you develop for your new friends and the nearly unreal experiences you share counterbalances the fear. It is hard to describe what it is like to lie down and share a drink with one of your best friends as you watch the fire dancers perform in front of the setting sun on a small Thai island.

In the end, it is the inspiration that I gained that is life changing.  On a personal level, it is liberating to board a plane and fly over the Pacific when you're really not ready to, and live for six months in an alien culture and leave with wild stories and life long friendships. It let me know I can do a lot more than I imagined – and that alone is a worth it.

When combined with the fact that I experienced the fear and desperation first hand of poverty that we can't imagine in the Western world, the end result is a strong drive to give back to the world. And when you put it all together, you come to understand, that if the right people have the right experiences, and gain the needed insights, we just may be able to mold the world into something better within our lifetime. And that goal, to personally give back, and that dream, that we may join forces to give shape to the world in a real way, is what the Hong Kong study abroad was to me.