I am 26 and graduated from the Paris Graduate School
of Management (ESG) in 2006. I came to the United States for additional
studies at Stanford University. After six months at the Stanford continuing
program I decided to travel all around the United States for six main
reasons (See "goals" section).
I think that being able to appreciate and understand people, while also
being flexible in life are keys to building and sustaining a happy life.
Do you know the chaos theory? A small event can have such a big consequence!
During this trip I wanted to understand each one of the thousands of
people I met, their personalities, visions of life and lifestyle. Throughout
all of these invaluable and different experiences I had with each of
them, my mind was opened, my vision of the ‘world’ changed,
and my interpersonal skills were improved.
This trip went beyond all my expectations. First it taught me about
“life experiences”. During my travels I gained maturity
and wisdom. I met all different kinds of people and had to push me beyond
my circle of comfort and knowledge everyday. It also changed my vision
about America and her culture. Trying to understand America with the
differences as I traveled increased my tolerance, allowed me to become
more educated and allowed me to adapt myself better to society.
This trip also developed my interpersonal skills. After meeting thousands
of people with different cultures, values, ways of life and ways of
thinking, I developed a good base of knowledge to find and understand
the best way to talk to anyone, anybody, anywhere.
This trip also helped me to grow and have a better understanding of
myself. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, represented
as a pyramid, we all have a physiological, safety, love-belonging, self-esteem
and Self-actualization needs. This trip was astounding in a way that
I could in the same time explore the three last stages at the same time:
love-belonging, self-esteem and self-actualization and also my cognitive
and aesthetic needs.
This trip was such a rich experience because it gave me the willingness
to discover the rest of the world and other cultures!
