TO BOLDLY GO WHERE YOU HAVE NOT GONE BEFORE
Nadiah Nordin, ’16, School of Engineering
The first eighteen years of my life were spent in Malaysia, the land I was born in. Even then, I had always dreamed of going abroad for studies or on vacation. My parents, two high school teachers with four children to feed, could never have afforded it, although we have a house to call home in a suburban neighborhood of Kuantan.
When I was offered a scholarship to Vanderbilt, I was initially doubtful to accept it, as it meant leaving my family, my friends, and my homeland to live halfway around the world for most of the next four years. Nevertheless, I packed my bags and traveled aboard a plane for the very first time from Kuala Lumpur to Nashville. It was a decision I never regretted.
Studying in the United States has opened me to experiences I would never have gotten anywhere else—from meeting my VUceptors and engaging with professors as well as fellow students to falling off a bike on a rainy day and losing both of my front teeth. I have learned that there is more to life than living in a single place all of your life, and that people are meant to explore the world around them.
And so, my fellow Vanderbilt students, go out there and explore the world around you. Whether you study abroad in a faraway land or engage in a research project or even make a new friend, there is always something to look at if you open your eyes.
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