<Author>Michael</Author>
<Topic>Getting to Know the World outside the Campus</Topic>
<Source>CET4 Composition Topic of June 1997</Source>
<Nationality>USA</Nationality>
Fourth Century Saint Augustine made this wise comment," If you haven't traveled, you have never opened a book." We have a saying in the United States, "The closed mind is a terrible waste." It is important for college and university students to travel beyond your own often isolated campuses so that you can know the world, particularly as the world becomes more and more globally oriented. We can travel in many different ways. Through books, I traveled figuratively to the Roman Forum, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Capitol in Washington DC, the Louve in Paris, Westminster in London, and The Forbidden City in Beijing long before I actually traveled there in person. The cinema, and later television and videos, transported me visually to many areas that I had not actually seen with my own eyes. I have now traveled to forty countries by the Internet and email. Even before I had traveled to these countries digitally, I had also gone to the same number of countries personally. China is my forty-fifth country to visit.
In terms of my personal travel, while I was a secondary student, my parents took me to many states in America, and then also to Canada. While in the university, I began to plan and work to earn enough money to go to Europe on a student budget for the summer after I graduated. During the summer between my junior and senior year of college, I was invited to go to a student conference in El Salvador, in Central America. My parents agreed that I could go if I wished to take part of the money that I was saving to go to Europe the following summer. I then made my own decision, that no, I would not go to El Salvador for the short trip, and instead would continue to work and save the money to go to Europe the following summer. The two months traveling after my senior university year in Europe were marvelous.
China is a vast country to explore. While Chinese students have much less available income to travel perhaps than I did as a student, books, cinema, television, videos, and digital communication are a starting point for travel. Bus and train trips to various parts of China might be the next step for opening up your world beyond the campus through travel. Then other opportunities may develop, perhaps after completing your university education. Keep your mind open to such chances to know the world more clearly and broadly.
