Have you ever found yourself walking down a sidewalk or path somewhere in the United States of America, curious about what your journey ahead will discover?
In 1974, the country was in a different era of change. Walking down towards campus on “The Hill” in Boulder that crisp September Fall, the clan of Hare Krishnas were in front of the book store dancing and expressing their heritage in dress and song.
The Vietnam War was winding down and 58,000+ Americans had made the ultimate sacrifice.
The next four years was going to be full of extreme “Experiential Learning”.
Whether it was navigating the problem-sets of achieving a B.A. in International Affairs within the famous University of Colorado - IAFS Program in the College of Arts & Sciences department, or exploring the favorite steep mountain trails on the weekends, there would be many new challenges ahead.
While taking a full load of International academics, pledging one of the leading national Fraternities and earning a spot on the NCAA Div I National Championship (20) Ski Team (B), the chance to learn the “Art of Leadership” in real-time became achievable.
By the end of those 4 years, it was now time to leave the collegiate experiential learning and to become curious and to explore our world of business.
You can try to put your USA life in context by reading books and visiting a few states, yet you must get out of our country to really learn and understand our nation even better.
Journeys to Canada, Mexico, France, Australia, South Africa, Italy, Germany, England, Ireland, Scotland, and Switzerland has provided significant insight and a more full understanding of our global mosaic. That is just the beginning.
How might you travel our world working and/or vacationing to increase your knowledge and experience to learn what it is like to be an “American”, visiting another country?
In your future, whenever you have the opportunity to have a dialogue with a new acquaintance, ask them to find out their personal level of global context.
Ask them about their particular experiences with living and exploring new and different cultures, while seeing and witnessing something new outside the USA.
So what?
Our global world is not only vast in its geography, it is deep in history and worthy of our true “Experiential Learning”.
Get out of your own neighborhood. Out of your State. Get out of your Country.
Increase your own context on the “What”, “Where”, “How” and just maybe you can start your understanding of the “Why”.
Whether it is Paris, Geneva, Sydney, Cape Town, Rome, Berlin, London, Dublin, Edinburgh, Kabul, Abu Dhabi or exploring the hiking trails above the Virginia USA Potomac River outside Washington, DC, get out there and increase your global experiences.
Better understand and learn what makes our world, what it has now become in 2022. Gain new international context. Feel what it truly means, to be an "American"...
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