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| A picture of my lock on the chains atop the South Peak of Hua Shan |
This blog post is late. As “Head of Class,” the perfunctory title given to the Scholar chosen by the Center to be the “final word” on decisions while in China, I wanted to give the “final word” of our China blogs as well, summing up our experiences with my own reflections. This has proven to be much more difficult than I anticipated, and thus taken longer than I expected, simply because there are so many things I could say.
I ran into a similar problem while climbing Mount Hua (Hua Shan) near Xi’an in China. Hua Shan is one of China’s Five Great Mountains (Wu Yue), sacred mountains that are associated with the five cardinal directions of the Chinese tradition, which includes the center as a direction. Hua Shan is the West Great Mountain, an ancient destination for imperial pilgrimage known for the Taoist temples built upon it. There is a tradition for those who climb Hua Shan to leave behind a golden lock inscribed with a prayer or wish clasped to the chains that are strung along the path edges. I struggled to decide upon a simple phrase for my lock that would do the ascent of Hua Shan, and the trip as a whole, justice. My mind kept going back to the following quote from Wendell Berry’s The Unforeseen Wilderness, assigned reading for a McConnell Scholars Retreat two years earlier:
And the world cannot be discovered by a journey of miles, no matter how long, but only by a spiritual journey, a journey of one inch, very arduous and humbling and joyful, by which we arrive at the ground at our own feet, and learn to be at home.For me, the McConnell Scholars Class of 2014 trip to China was a “journey of one inch.” I traveled halfway around the world to learn about China, but I also ended up learning a lot about myself. This one-inch journey I experienced from China was in many ways similar to climbing Hua Shan: it was not always easy, but with a will to persevere and a good attitude I could make it past even the more challenging sections, and the view from the top was definitely worth it. I forged a new sense of confidence in my abilities to adapt, to lead, and to motivate others when circumstances are not ideal.
Another significant part of “learning to be at home” was growing closer to my classmates, whom I had been around for the past three years without actually getting to know them. This was one of the most humbling aspects of my one-inch journey: realizing that I had been missing out on some really awesome friendships that had been right there in front of me all along back home.
Thanks to the McConnell Center I was able to study abroad for free in China for a month. But, beyond just an incredible study abroad opportunity, being a part of the McConnell Scholars program has also provided me with many of the most meaningful aspects of my collegiate career: it introduced me to a group of “new” old friends I am proud to spend senior year with, exposed me to new thoughts and ideas that have formed the framework for my personal growth, and given me the chance to step up as a leader.
I’ll leave you with another quote I probably would not otherwise know had it not been for the McConnell Center:
And the end of all our exploringSarah Stovall, McConnell Scholars Chair, is a rising senior at the University of Louisville studying political science, economics, and creative writing.
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
- T.S. Eliot, Little Gidding