Just because you spent 4 years studying a subject doesn't mean you have to spend the rest 40 years suffering it.

We are homeless enough in this world under the best of circumstances without going to any special effort to test our capacity to be more so.

When the ancient Romans would conquer a new place or a new people, they would leave the language and the customs in tact _ they would even let the conquered people rule themselves in most cases, appointing a governor to maintain a foothold in the region._ Wilson leaned against the whiteboard as he spoke, his posture relaxed, his hands clasped loosely.__his was part of what made Rome so successful. They didn't try to make everyone Romans in the process of conquering them. When I went to Africa with the Peace Corp, a woman who worked with the Corp said something to me that I have often thought about since. She told me 'Africa is not going to adapt to you. You are going to have to adapt to Africa.' That is true of wherever you go, whether it's school or whether it's in the broader world.

Preparing for your journey in the most thorough way possible will not diminish your experiences abroad. It will enhance them.

I ended up in the back seat of a chicken truck__ cab heading through beautiful scenery and disastrous roads to my hotel. About an hour later, we stopped to sell a few hundred of the chickens to a butcher shop.

Grades are still important, but they are not the most important things. As clichéd as it is, the things you learn outside class is more important than the textbooks you blindly memorize in time for exams.