Reverse Culture Shock
After being abroad for several months, the natural questions from anyone I encounter has been “How was Germany!? How is being back!?” My answer: “Great! Reverse culture shock.” What this really means and has made me realize is how unique the American college experience is and how unique the Babson college experience is. I have literally hit the ground running while being back, thrown into a whirlwind of classes, work, orgs, internship interviews, networking interviews, and catching up with my friends on campus.
Babson is a busier school than most, something I didn’t realize until I met and talked to students from other schools inducing my roommates from abroad. “What do you mean you have meetings? With your professors?” I answer “No, with students, for group projects, with advisers…” What I hadn’t realized until now is that we are all mini adults. Young adults. This is the greatest advantage of acclimating into the working world- we are crazy busy. With obligations but also with living life to the fullest. I have garnered a certain pride (even with the underlying stress) of having a packed Google calendar and pushing myself to go out and do more on the weekend. I call it value-added.
Sure, a typical Babson student has 20-50+ emails rolling in a day, but Babson students also have leadership skills and a side business too that isn’t so typical. My friends from home think I’m crazy for being booked every weekend until May 27th, but I know every weekend is full of doing something I love and something that really does add value to my life. I have been trying to figure out why Babson is so unique, why we as students are so unique (since I constantly rave about the people being the greatest asset) and I think I’ve figured it out. We work hard and we play hard- we are wildly passionate about whatever is filling our time and yea, it takes a little getting used to but it’s so worth it.