Writing for Digital Media

          “Eavesdrop on a Conversation,” that is the prompt for this week. Other classes throughout my college career have also given me the same task, which made me think about the educational value in eavesdropping on a stranger’s conversation. Is there something I can learn from knowing a stranger “would go to the gym, but all the laundry is a pain” or overhearing the inner politics behind Greek life on campus? Maybe this is supposed to an exercise in paying attention and focusing on something outside of myself. Is it meant to get you to notice something you would otherwise over look?             Almost everybody has eavesdropped on people they know out of curiosity or by accident. When I was in elementary school, I won a prize for selling a certain amount of cookie dough. The prize was a little blue box no bigger than a match book that could amplify sound, so you could hear conversations from further ...

           Ever since I was a freshman in college, I had wanted to study abroad. However, there was two major challenges to achieving this goal. Firstly, I am afraid of plane rides. There is something unnatural about being that high up in the air. I can never get comfortable with the idea that I am above the clouds and zooming across the sky at hundreds of miles an hour. Secondly, I can only fluently speak English. Speaking only English limited the number of programs I could qualify for and the number of places around the world I could go.             This all changed the fall semester of my junior year when I was approached by my Spanish professor about summer study abroad program in Paris that lasted a month. The program was for literature and writing and the classes were taught in English. Even though I would still need to know French to get around the city, I decided to apply of the program. A few months after I sent in ...