Jared Burgess: Welcome Home, Stranger

I have always wanted to study abroad, and I was very fortunate to have had the opportunity. I was grateful for the opportunity but failed to realize just how crucial it would be in my life. The idea of traveling away from South Carolina, away from the “dirty South,” had always been a dream of mine. It has been one of the few dreams to survive through many years of my life; a dream that I have clung to since I was little. I knew I wouldn’t do well with a significantly exotic location, so England seemed to call my name. I decided to try my luck with the University of Cambridge, which hosts various Summer programs for many different majors and special topics. Since I am studying science, I chose to apply to the Summer science program. To my astonishment, I was accepted. I chose courses that I would never be able to take here at Lander: a survey of the mechanisms and topics of cosmology, and quantum mechanics. Before long I was packing my bags and getting ready to board a plane leaving to another country.

Standing on the famous bridge above the River Cam  that Stephen Hawking shared the first dance with his to-be wife while attending the University of Cambridge

My family members and close friends all told me about how different it is across the pond, how out of place I would feel, or how different the people and cultures would be. Lucky for me, none of those people had actually been to another country (some having not even left the state). During my first few hours in London, I was amazed not in the differences of the new world around me, but the similarities. This was not at all a letdown for me, but a moment of empowerment. It gave me the courage to do things I never thought I would do, like take part in a pub crawl the first night there with complete strangers that I had just met earlier that day. 

Once I had made it North to the University of Cambridge, it seemed like I couldn’t meet a stranger. Since the program was international, the students came from many countries across the world. My classes there were difficult, very difficult. The classes challenged me more than I had ever been in the classes that I had taken in the past. Once again, I was grateful for this difficulty, however. My final project was a research paper discussing the evidence supporting the theory of dark matter and dark energy in the universe. I was actually proud of my writing, and I did it well. Luckily for me, my classmates took mercy on me throughout this endeavor. Apparently, Australia is on their A-game when it comes to quantum mechanics and cosmology because most of my classmates came from the land down under. We all became a close-knit group in a short time, considering we lived together, studied together, and engaged in the same evening activities together.

Enjoying a nice dinner with my friends in the Great Dining Hall of the Gonville and Caius College

I soon realized that I felt more comfortable in a new place, being surrounded by new people than I did back home. I was happy. I have never been content in South Carolina and could never see a future here, but just in the short time I had been in Cambridge, I felt uniquely comfortable. I even had one of my favorite experiences there. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to spend my 20th birthday with my new friends. They treated me to a wonderful pub crawl that evolved into a club crawl later that night. The last place we ended up in was a Moroccan themed private club that a local bartender pulled some strings to get us in. We were welcomed with table service and all the champagne we wanted. I don’t even like champagne, but I did at that moment. After we were done there, it was time to hit up the kebab shop. Until the sun rose the next morning, we all sat on a grassy bank of the River Cam with a nice bottle of red wine, eating our big paper trays of delicious greasy kebabs. We talked there. We talked about anything and everything. We were all so different: all coming from different places, all having such different experiences from around the world. I didn’t realize at that time just how important one could carry. One thing I did know that night was that I was going to have a difficult time saying goodbye to these people; and I did, I really did.

After returning back home to South Carolina, it felt like something was missing in my life. It wasn’t until later, after much thought and reflection on my experience abroad that I realized what exactly it was that was missing. I missed the feeling of being content and at home. I don’t want it to seem as though I don’t appreciate my friends and family here at home; they are the ones that make it bearable. Though I was born and raised in South Carolina, this just is not my home. My experience abroad was bittersweet in that I now realize I have to live somewhere I don’t belong, but I now have the comprehension needed to understand that, and eventually overcome it. I know now that I don’t have to be stuck here in South Carolina, but instead, use it as a stepping stone to move on to a place where I can enjoy my surroundings and be content. My time abroad gave me a glimpse at how big this world can be. It can be as big as we make it. I can understand others’ hesitations, but for me, I choose to experience all that I can.

Jared Burgess is a senior chemistry major at Lander University. He did his breakaway the Summer of 2016 and attended the Summer Science Program for the University of Cambridge. He is currently an emergency medical technician for Greenwood County and plans to further his education in emergency medicine after graduating in the spring of 2020.