Becoming Who You Want to Be by Gregg Lorberbaum

Author:Gregg Lorberbaum
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Greenleaf Book Group Press
Published: 2019-03-17T16:00:00+00:00

THE TRAIN TO KYOTO?

In my sophomore year in college, I transferred to the University of Pittsburgh, where I attended a program called Semester at Sea. Instead of spending a semester abroad in one location, the students attending Semester at Sea got to make an experiential, comparative study of many countries around the world—all while circumnavigating the globe on an ocean liner. When I found out that my current school, Tulane, accepted credit from Semester as Sea, I was on my way. My parents encouraged me to do the program to help me gain experience on how to navigate in unusual circumstances and help improve my sense of direction.

A bold parenting move on their part at the time!

When I first arrived at the ship that would be my home for the next three months, I discovered I’d been given one of the few single rooms on the ship. While this allowed me more privacy, it left me without someone to walk into the first community meeting with. When I arrived at the meeting, feeling a bit forlorn, it looked like everyone else had already formed relationships, and I’d been left out. But I worked even harder than I would have otherwise to put myself out there and talk to people. It didn’t take me long to realize that none of the “friendships” were more than a few hours old, and that we were all feeling the same mix of self-consciousness and social awkwardness. We were all literally in the same boat—and we wound up sharing a great adventure together.

One of my adventures involved a train ride between Kyoto and Kobe, which was difficult to navigate due to the lack of English speakers and English signage pretty much everywhere. My travel partner and I were trying to get the bullet train back to Kyoto. We were running, and we knew that if we didn’t make it, we would literally miss the boat. We got to the train station, saw the train, and started running for it. Just as we arrived, the doors closed, and the train pulled out. My survival skills came out in full force. Because I was so used to being lost, I yelled out at the top of my lungs, “Does anyone speak English? Where is the next train to Kyoto?”

Back to me from across the top of a sea of organized human chaos that is the Kobe train platform, somebody yelled back in English, “Stay where you are—the train will be right there!” It turned out that the first train had been going in the wrong direction! This is a great example of a time when something that seems bad turns out to be good.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.