Hurry up to Wait

Chelsea Cowley
Communication 301 Blog about Corsica
Title: “Hurry up to Wait”

This past week in Corsica was filled with mixed emotions ranging from cascading tears to contagious laughter involving each possible emotion in between. It all started at four o’clock in the morning on Tuesday, October 13, 2009. As my clock ticked slowly while I should have been sleeping, but was not, thoughts raced through my head about my expectations for the upcoming week. Unsure of what to expect, I knew that struggling would be involved. After I found out that I was not in the same hotel, group, or bus as my ALL of my friends, a sense of panic, confusion, and frustration came over me. I knew that communication would not be simple as we do not have cell phones and 50 cents per text message is expensive. After ‘googling’ the distance between our hotels, I soon realized that I either had to walk fairly long distances multiple times a day while complaining or I had to think positively and make the best of the situation. In my mind-I had two options. I could be upset and pessimistic all week long or, I could be positive and enjoy the amazing experience that was ahead.

Upon arriving in Corsica, exhausted from traveling for 24 hours via boat and bus, my mood quickly deteriorated. My ‘think positive’ outlook on life soon disappeared and the week seemingly took a turn for the worst. Pepperdine’s new mission statement: “Hurry up to wait” quickly became the theme of the week. While I realize that traveling with 70 rowdy American students is challenging to say the least, I feel that the majority of my week was spent waiting. Waiting can be defined anywhere from waiting for transportation, standing in the cold in the mountains of Corsica for no apparent reason, aimlessly wandering around museums to learn nothing, staring at the headrests on buses for hours upon hours, inhaling breakfast in a shocking amount of time to stand in the lobby, checking out of our hotels to stand in the rain for hours with no place to go, arriving at the airport four hours early with no dinner and no food options, and the list can go on and on. I may appear to be extremely negative; however, I feel that an unnecessary amount of time was wasted in Corsica waiting for people, buses, and instructions. The time we spent standing around could have been used to explore and to truly ‘educate’ ourselves about the Corsican culture and way of life. While hurrying up to wait copious times per day, I also did not see my friends more than five times the whole week to due the constant separation and the constant herding of college students. The entire week felt as though we were cattle being herded around from location to location with zero sleep, food, and water. I personally believe that I am able to keep track of myself, to be on time, and can be trusted to not run away in the streets of Corsica. In theory, the idea of keeping track of the students is a great idea but could have been accomplished in a much more fair, and efficient way.
However, despite my frustration about this past week, I definitely enjoyed myself and felt extremely blessed to be surrounded by such magnificent beauty and history. In tough times, I truly believe that suffering makes people more gracious and thankful. This week may have been challenging both physically and emotionally, but I was miraculously able to see the good in this week and appreciate the life that God has given me.

Perhaps I am guilty of using the cognitive dissonance theory to convince myself that I had a phenomenal time in Corsica because it would not make sense if I said I was miserable, angry and grumpy the whole time. Mentally, I would feel terrible for not enjoying myself while in Corsica because it truly was a once in a lifetime opportunity that I will never forget. Regardless of the positive and negatives emotions that I experienced this past week, I am so thankful for the place I am at in my life and that I have opportunities that most people in the world would never even dream of having. Even if I continue for the rest of the year to ‘hurry up and wait’ I will count my blessings and appreciate my experiences.