English Literature

Coming to the University of Michigan from China was a shock for me in many ways. I was moving toward not only my education and future but away from my past and where Id once belonged. Id transplanted myself from the community of my childhood to a new and much smaller community as a student within a foreign country. However, I have been able to adapt. Ann Arbor is filled with students from all over the world, who like me, moved to Michigan to become students. We are from different culture, ethnicities, age groups, and geographic areas but we come together under a common interest of a quality education. We live together, work together, experience the world together. As a community, we are as connected to one another as members of a small town. It is a unique community because though it will always hold a history for us, it is not permanent. We will move on to other communities and ways of life but the time we spend as students in Ann Arbor will effect the direction of these lives. Until that time, I am proud to be a student here and part of this small community that exists in one form or another, all across the world.

Even though I have left behind the community in Shanghai, I still feel myself to be a part of it. It is a community that is familiar to me through language, culture, daily and historical challenges that have brought us together. It is the community of my family and my childhood. The campus community allows me and the other students to remain a part of our past communities while embracing new experiences. Even though we have moved into a new world, the temporary nature of our experiences lets us stay connected to our past. In many ways, the community at the university is not what would be considered a traditional community but is equally important. As a member of the community I am not bound to the other students, the faculty, or town by language, ethnicity, or a cultural and political history. However, we all find a place within the community of the University of Michigan as students who have a shared interest in our education and the area that we have come to in order to receive it. Though there are students from all over the world, the official language of the community is understood to be English. When I first came to the University of Michigan to study I was struck by the variety of people from across the United States and the world, all who had chosen to come here to study. I think in some ways it is the diversity of our backgrounds that helps to bind us together as a student community. We have each moved out of the safety of our old communities to embrace new people, new experiences, and, most importantly, new knowledge.

Once you get on campus, like any community, there are smaller groups who unite under more specific interests. There seems to be a group for just about any political, social, artistic, and ethnic group on campus. In these groups, we students can revisit our old communities and belong to new ones. In this way, the university is like a country. Like a country there are central unifying ideals that become more localized in particular regions and towns. A citizen of the U.S. thinks of themselves first by their country and then as a citizen of their hometown or area. In the U.S., a New Yorker is of course an American but they feel more closely linked to New York in their understanding of the world. The sounds and sights are familiar, the people and foods feel like home. They know how to take the subway and what to order off the menu at the restaurant down the street. On the University of Michigan campus it is similar we students are all part of the campus community but in our smaller groups were find familiarity through the types of language we speak, our future careers, our politics, and other activities. Though we see ourselves as part of these smaller groups, only on the campus is there any real distinction and even then we still are united in our dreams.

Thousands of miles away from my own country and community, the university has become a second, temporary community in my way through life. After graduation I will no longer be part of the same community I will be an alumni but no longer a student of the university. The routines of daily life that I and my fellow students associate with our lives here will be no longer. I wont go to scheduled classes to learn about history or biology and I wont eat or meet with friends and classmates at the student union. That my time in this community is only temporary is another thing that connects me to the other students. We serve each other in times of need and despite my being from a foreign country I have found the university to be accommodating to my differences. Community isnt just about the experience of being a student but the faculty and staff of the university that have shaped the experiences of individual students. In addition, the community of Ann Arbor and the University campus itself benefit one another as sources of income. Students help to fill jobs, they spend money at local stores and businesses, and the townspeople do the same, working at the university while also sending their children to the school. It is a mutually beneficial situation that helps to support the college and the town simultaneously. Students can also work on campus, becoming an even more integral part of the campus community by helping to support the services that other students rely on. In this way, the community economically supports itself and the surrounding area.

On a personal level, my relationship with other students and the wider campus community are important to me. Academically, I feel that Im part of a community geared toward a collective future. Through my professors, fellow students, and the resources of the university, Im not only able but encouraged to complete my studies and achieve my goals. This shows how the community supports my individual goals and dreams through helping me to achieve them. My friends here provide the personal support I need, being there when I need someone to share my life and experiences with and to help me in my time of need. Though we may appear, from the outside world, to be just another university campus who living and learn together, it is as a campus that we emerge as a community. As students, we are connected to the past and future of the university. The way the university is now is a result of its history and the history of education in the U.S. my achievements and experiences will also help to influence the future of other students here and their own experiences.

While the college experience is something shared the world over on individual college and university campuses, as a community we students are unique in our connection to the University of Michigan. Its symbols, such as school colors or mascot, help to identify us to the larger world. On a more personal level, the individuals and the surrounding community of Ann Arbor make the university community distinct to the many students who pass through campus. Our lives will be shaped by the education and personal relationships we develop here, though we wont be an involved part of the community once we graduate our association with the university will forever be a part of us. More importantly, while we each came here for the education and the experience, I personally feel Ive found a second home within this community. I have learned how to live and relate to this new environment because of my connection to the other students who share my present experiences. Like any community Ive found that the more Ive become an active part of it, the more it becomes a home to me. By reaching out to others like myself and those who are not quite so much the same, my place as a member in this community has become more and more an important part of my life and, I, a part of it.