Column:
Hendel: I'm saying what you're all thinking
Published May 1, 2007
It began with Joe Furmanek and evolved from there. Ryan Gladstone took the reins the following semester and then Betsy Mikel and yours truly this semester. Yes, folks, you've got it. I'm talking about the dreaded entity of the study-abroad columnist.
You've probably grown to understand and appreciate the nature of studying abroad in painful detail over the past year and a half of these weekly columns. The Maneater's faithful readers have followed the journey each step of the way, learning all the lessons of Europe and the joys of travel and why each of you out there should follow suit and get your damn hands on a study-abroad application already.
God, that sucked, didn't it?
A whole third of the columns this semester have been devoted to the triumphs and travails of traveling abroad. That's a lot of life lessons and travelogues, all stemming from the cultural wonderland of Europe. I have no doubt whatsoever that it can get cliché and old after awhile. Hell, I know I would be a little tired of it. The all-caps foreign city names beginning each column alone would jar the eyes.
Thus, I propose the retirement of the study-abroad column, at least for the next semester. People need a breather and some more serious columns tackling what's going on at MU, columns more relevant to the students there. There's certainly more than enough topics available to write about.
Don't get me wrong. The study-abroad column has its uses, and I do admit it's good to add an international eye to the Forum page. People should be exposed to the possibilities available abroad. It's much easier than people think to arrange a program and too many people put it off — worries about scheduling, graduation plans and other difficulties associated with it. The column reminds students that they can escape Columbia for a semester, which, I believe is of vital importance.
Yet, The Maneater has delivered sufficiently in this regard for now. The problem with study-abroad columns tends to be that they hit on a lot of the same points. The sentiments run like this: Wow, look at me. I've discovered a broader world! Check out issue from another (probably foreign) perspective! Look at the social dynamics of abroad programs! And to top it off: Man, this whole reduced drinking age thing rocks!
Those themes, along with the touching life lessons of being abroad, tend to color a lot of columns written in another country. Readers witness the same spectacle of worldly awareness with each semester's columnist. Sure, it's fun, but ultimately half the writing tends to just chronicle a cool European vacation.
I, of course, have been a study-abroad columnist and enjoyed myself thoroughly throughout the semester. I remember reading previous abroad columnists and liking them, in anticipation of going myself. Yet writing one such column for a semester taught me that a European holiday can only last for so long. The past 48 hours have seen my return to America — with 24 hours of straight traveling — and I am ready to end the series of study-abroad columns.
Yes, folks, I'm consigning myself to Missouri for at least another academic year and calling for a break from study-abroad columns in general. We've laughed, we've cried, we've talked about kebabs, crepes and more. But all things end, and so it goes.
It's been good. Cheers, mates.
