Written by Alicia Soomaroo
When moaning about university life over drinks, anyone passing by would assume that the students are just wasting their time at the university and not getting anything in return. This is the farthest from the truth. As a student, any type of student, there is the inalienable right to complain about anything that needs complaining about with no one better to do it but themselves.
The truth is, the acceptance into the American University of Paris and the university community is one of the greatest things to happen to most of the students here. There's opportunity in the name of this institution. The ability to live independently abroad and be immersed in another culture, the humour that can be found in an individual's reaction to culture shock, and the whole experience in general makes up what AUP is really about.
There is a definite advantage that comes with being here. It's not only the people that are met, the friends that are made, and the experiences that are shared. There's more to life here than sitting around drinking, laughing, and losing the passage of time and forgetting that college doesn't last forever. In the end, all the memories blur together about what new clubs opened and who was there and with whom.
It's about the individual a student becomes through their time spent at the American University of Paris. This doesn't just include their university education, but also their education of people and places other than themselves and how they relate to all of this in the world. It brings about the potential in one individual and broadcasts it in front of them, even if they did not realize it when they first set foot here. The university is a living, breathing, and changing example of how every individual makes up the community they live in and, in a larger scope, how the world is viewed through the individual who views it with their own perspective.
There is not only an advantage in interacting with people from all over the world and living in another culture yourself, there is also a definite advantage in knowing what can be done with the strength of fresh individuality and a new, open perspective.