Upon hearing that my semester long study abroad is taking place in Melbourne, Australia, around 98% of people asked if I could box a kangaroo and send video footage (the other 2% asked for a selfie with a koala). Honestly, I don’t blame them. When I first applied in October, I didn’t really know what Australia had to offer other than wildlife that could easily kill you. Fast forwarding to now when I’m hours away from setting foot in the country that houses 8 of 10 deadliest species of snakes, to be honest I still don’t really know what I’m supposed to be doing.
In my opinion, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I’ve picked courses I am excited about, and I’ve figured out my living accommodations, but other than that? No idea. But I’m sure plenty of people study abroad to learn more about the world and themselves. When I land, I’m just hoping to “Hi, my name is Rutuja, I’m a junior bioengineering student from the University of Pittsburgh” my way into making new friends. Hopefully my bubbly and extroverted personality will help me make friends in my classes, if not at least when I join a dance club.
“So if you have no idea what you’re doing, why did you apply to Melbourne?” Great question. I applied precisely because I don’t know what I’m doing. Having lived in Pennsylvania my entire life, I don’t think I’ve had a lot of exposure to global experiences (other than my trip to India when I was 11). My main goal is to just learn more about who I am when I’m taken out of my comfort zone; to learn who I am when the things that define me back home are miniscule in the global perspective. Academically, I want to know what it means to learn somewhere where the course structure and grading scale is completely different than our usual letter grades. As a bioengineering major with a biomechanics concentration, I hope to learn how biomechanics is researched and taught globally. How is the math, physics, technology, and approach different? Is it any different? And finally, I hope to make friends all around the world. 600 global exchange students attending the University of Melbourne this semester all picked it for a reason and of the 7.2 billion people on the earth, we’re all going here at the same time. In my opinion that’s a mind-blowing statistic.
I picked the global engineering exchange at the University of Melbourne because of the University’s dedication to inclusivity and academic excellence. I am so excited to learn more about the subjects I’m passionate about while also learning more about who I am. Stay tuned to see what’s next, and no, I will not be boxing a kangaroo.
