Kiki Canton

CAROLINE CHENG news editor

Definitely a piece of advice I have is to study abroad. I got to study abroad twice in Mexico and Argentina and both of those experiences were absolutely life changing for me. Getting off campus, getting out of your comfort zone where you can, to learn about other people and other ways of life is such a valuable experience to have and you will never have the freedom that you have when you’re in college to be able to do those things.

When I went to Argentina, I felt really lucky because this was all pre-cell phone. I lived in a house that was built in the late 1700s, didn’t have a living room, had one bathroom for 11 people, and was cold. There was no air conditioning or heat–it was way out of my comfort zone in terms of where I was actually staying and I loved it. It was a very valuable experience. I loved that I got to know the family extremely well that I was with. They didn’t speak a word of English, not even at all a little bit. And my Spanish wasn’t great then. I was really forced to work very hard to communicate with them. I was there for three and a half months and that was huge for me. It was also very eye opening because I learned a lot of history that I did not know about. I met survivors of the military dictatorship and an incredible artist/ activist who was on a mission to make sure Argentina and the world never forgot about his fellow countrymen who were killed by their government. Probably my most valuable possession is a piece of his art that is hanging on my classroom wall now.

I’m jumping around here, but freshman year I went in being pre-business. U-Dub has a very good business school and I thought I wanted to be in business. So I was taking all the math classes and dabbling with political science. I liked that. But I started with the micro and macro economics classes, and I hated it and I wasn’t very good at it at all. And I looked around the room and I also didn’t really like the people that were in my classes and I thought maybe this isn’t for me. I took an ethnic studies class, which back then I had never heard of. That class kinda rocked my world. That coupled with studying abroad completely changed the trajectory of my studies, and then of course, my career.

I guess the big lesson is, just because you have an idea of what you’re going to do now doesn’t mean that’s how it’s going to work out, and maybe that’s a good thing. Don’t think that you have to go down some preordained path. Life will surprise you. You will discover different things about the world and yourself over the next few years and try to embrace all that unknown newness. And of course don’t forget, people are fascinating! Be sure to put your phone down and talk to strangers

“It was an incredible night, and I was so proud of our team for the tremendous energy and determination that each player brought to the game, and carried all the way to the end of the second overtime, earning the team its first victory in two years. The senior night ceremony was also amazing, and I could not be more proud to end the season with that reminder of how much we had improved and grown together.

Siddarth Kadari, Boys Water Polo