Life Changing - Really!

Its easy to say an experience is "life changing" or had a great impact about just about anything. I'm sure many of you reading this, if you've had to write college essays about "life changing" experiences, then you know exactly what I mean: you take some semi-interesting event and make up a bunch of stuff about the lessons you learned from it. I know I did that for my college essays. But after Academic Explorers I didn't have to spin lies when asked questions like that. For me, my time in China was a truly life changing experience, and I hope by the end of this review you will believe my sincerity.

The basics: Academic Explorers is a 3 month program in Beijing China. You'll study both the Chinese language and several forms of martial arts. On my trip I studied Shaolin and Ba Gua, and we also got to learn some techniques with a spear which was really cool.

You may already have heard this program described as intense. Make no mistake, it really is. When I arrived, I could barely run a mile without wanting to throw up. By the end of the program each day consisted of a 5 mile warm up jog, 4 hours of kung fu practice, and then another 5 mile jog. And I was loving it. Seeing my transformation was incredible. It was not just the physical effects, I also learned enough Chinese to have a substantial conversation on the flight home with the man sitting next to me, all in Chinese. It was very cool.

Beyond just the tangible fitness and language skills I gained, I became a much more self-sufficient and confident person. Sabrina (the person running the program) gives you lots of autonomy, but lots of responsibility comes with it. On the very first day, after an 11 hour flight, she had us figure out what bus to take to get to our hotel from the airport. At first, I was frustrated with this style of program management. I was one of the many who was never really challenged in high school, and having to figure things out in a strange land really pushed me out of my comfort zone and allowed me to grow as a person. Being challenged both in class, with the material we were learning, and out of class, in ensuring we arrive to class on time, with all our homework completed, forced me to develop not just planning skills, but also self-reliance. Even with an extremely full day of homework, kung fu practice and chinese class I could still get everything done and have some personal time.

The physical challenged as well was extremely rewarding. During the second week, when I felt like my legs were going to fall off, and I still had another lap around the park to run, and I know tomorrow I have to do the same thing, and the day after that, and on and on seemingly forever, I wanted to give up. But I kept going, I made it, and you will too. And you'll learn what your truly capable of doing, if you push yourself and fight through the struggle at the beginning. And that knowledge, that self-confidence, is worth far more than any class, any school credits, or any internship experience in my mind. Having seen just how much I was capable of if I set my mind to it and put the time in was an extremely valuable and life changing experience. I cannot recommend Academic Explorers highly enough.