This mature Explo first-timer reflects on her summer and shares how she plans to incorporate the ideals of Explo back home.
It’s my first time at Explo and it’s seriously been so much fun. I’ve met so many people and had a bunch of new experiences that I never thought I would have experienced. It’s been unreal to have those things happen to me. I never thought about taking a neuropsychology class, and I did! I felt so much fun and challenged and I learned so much. We did optical illusions one day and it was so fascinating learning about the science behind it. Just learning about how the brain processes things — our brains are really cool. It’s crazy how now I’m so interested in something I didn’t even know before coming here, and I might even consider it as a possible career.
My favorite part about Explo has been the people. I’ve made so many great friends and it feels like I’ve known them forever, even though it’s only been a few weeks. Something I’d want to cross off of my Explo bucket list in the next few days would be to learn more about the people that I’m already close with and make even more new friends because these friendships are so valuable. People are from all over and just learning about them all in one place is something I’ll never get anywhere else.
If I had to describe the vibe of Explo in a word, I’d say that Explo embodies the word “free,” because everyone’s free to be himself or herself and explore who they are without judgment.
I’m a bit sad today because the classes have been so much fun for me, and the closure of classes ending today is kind of sad. But, I’m excited to finish Explo and take the lessons I’ve learned here back home. I think when I go back home, I’ll be a lot more open-minded about different types of people because I never really had exposure to this before. There’s so many different people from different backgrounds and places, and I’m just going to be as open as I can.
Jaryd Frankel