Back when I thought I'd be studying abroad in China, I never encountered such confusion from my family and friends about my decision to do so. I don't think I would have needed to say a reason for studying in China. It would probably be obvious that it's a pertinent country to most focuses in the academia, and above all, it would probably lead to financial stability through multiple opportunities in the business world.
But now, I'm not going to China. My forms were late and I didn't get into the program (SIT has rolling admissions and they filled up too fast). I'm pretty sure I received my letter of rejection during some capstone crisis, so I just signed on the website to look at what else was open... and without even thoroughly looking through any of them I just told the lady to switch my application to the Pacific Islands program. BUT my curiosity led me to the pacific islands program before other countries for these reasons-
1. My high school/hometown has a huge Tongan/Samoan population (they're actually probably the nicest people I've ever met! just don't piss em off... they're big mofos) and it's been getting a lot of coverage for some of the traditions they've brought with immigration.
2. At the time I still thought I wanted to apply to a pacific relations graduate program (UCSD). But since then, I've kind of been leaning more towards graduate programs for political theory... we will see if this trip pushes me one way or another.
3. While this may not obviously be useful in political science, I'm interested in the gender dynamics in Samoa specifically. In some families, if there are not enough girls, a boy will dress and live with a feminine identity to help out with domestic duties. I stumbled across this article (after I signed up for the program) and it kind of sparked some questions in my mind. Specifically, if you just read the section called "The Ocean", I think it's interesting how she plays around with associating the idea of land to the masculine-- as a solid form worth exploring and discovering.... while linking water (deep and fluid) to the feminine and to Samoa-- remote and unexplored. The fact that the Pacific Islands are seen as irrelevant to international politics intrigues me. Why aren't the Pacific Islands studied more in the academia?
In short, I'm very curious about the places I'm going to go. But at the moment, I really have no objective for what I want to find. Which is a good place to be in, I guess.
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