Submitted by Devin O’Doherty on the 2019 winter session study abroad program in Australia and New Zealand sponsored by the Department of Business Administration…
My name is Devin O’Doherty and I am on the BUAD Auckland and Sydney program. This Sunday, I traveled with some people in my study abroad group to a place called Devonport. We took a short ferry across Waitemata Harbour to get there. When we got there, I was stunned by the amazing views along the coastline running for miles. The cute shops and restaurants all had their doors open letting the cool breeze blow through.
While we were there, I took a walk out onto a pier looking over the Pacific Ocean. A woman came up to me with her husband and young kid and we started talking about where we were from and our experiences. After a short while, we discovered she had been to Connecticut before, where I am from. It was so interesting to witness her experience in Connecticut and hear what she thought of it from such a different point of view than someone who has grown up there their entire life like me. She couldn’t stop going on about how beautiful she thought it was. She talked about the house she stayed in and described the backyard as a lovely forest. I was shocked by this description because, while I love Connecticut and my hometown, I was standing on a pier on the Pacific Ocean, overlooking the most beautiful beach and coastline I have ever seen with a volcanic island across the way and here she was telling me how beautiful she thought Connecticut was. I envisioned my “forest-like” backyard and the roads running through the state and just couldn’t believe she thought that that was as beautiful as the place we were in, her home. After expressing my surprise, however, she then said, “Well, the grass is always greener right?”. This was so interesting to me because it really put into perspective how we learn to not appreciate the beauty of the places we are from. You get used to where you live and take it for granted. It made me appreciate both the beauty of New Zealand and the beauty of the United States more in that moment, because while I see the U.S. every day, we have things no one else has, just like New Zealand has things we don’t have, and I think it’s an amazing thing to experience the beauty of the world whether it’s in your own backyard or 9,000 miles away. I’m happy I talked with this woman and gained this appreciation and it made me want to explore even more parts of the world so I can continue to see what it holds.
