Scrolling through Nicolette Dewberry’s Facebook is very much like flipping through a passport. Profile pictures from Jordan, Tel Aviv, Paris, London and Syria are the stamps from her many adventures. However, despite these far-off places, the most interesting thing about Nikki is that when she travels, she travels alone. “Was it a conscious decision to travel by yourself this summer?” I ask, and her answer is simple. “I knew I couldn’t pass up this opportunity. I didn’t want to look back and think, ‘well, if only I would have been braver.’ Nicolette is very brave, and her in-depth answers to my fairly generic questions reflects a mature world view. While interviewing her, I realized that, much like her Facebook, Mrs. Dewberry’s mind is endlessly interesting to rifle through.
Year: Sophomore
Major: International Relations and Global Studies
Organizations: International Affairs Society, Liberal Arts Refugee Alliance, Absolute Texxas
Her Campus Texas: What inspired you to travel?
Nicolette Dewberry: I distinctly remember looking up the requirements for New Zealand citizenship when I was 10 years old and planning my life according to what jobs they needed. I don’t really know why, but I knew there was something outside of suburban America that I wanted. Then, in middle school I saw an Invisible Children documentary and finally understood that real people with real lives existed outside of America. Ever since then, I’ve just wanted a better understand of what my life could of been if I had been born in some other place.
HCTX: What is the craziest thing that’s happened to you abroad?
ND: I could have never imagined the relationships I would make along the way. There are at least 30 people that live in 30 different cities throughout the world that I feel like I could go visit in the next month or 3 years from now.
HCTX: Do you have any special souvenirs from your trips? What’s their back story?
ND: I didn’t have much money to spend on souvenirs but the most touristy thing I bought was a t-shirt from Petra, Jordan. It has a bunch of camels and some Arabic on it that says “Petra, Jordan.” It was totally overpriced and the first time I washed it, it shrunk to a small child’s size and turned everything in my wash blue, but I love that shirt.
HCTX: What’s a place you’ve always wanted to go to but haven’t visited yet?
ND: Morocco is definitely on the top of my list. I love places that are a melting pot of cultures and I know Morocco wouldn’t disappoint. I’m hoping to study abroad there next year.
HCTX: In your opinion, what’s a common mistake college kids often make when traveling?
ND: I honestly don’t know that many people who travel. If they do, it’s just for study abroad. Which is incredible and I totally support it as a first step, but it’s easy to just speak to the other people in your program without ever getting to know the locals. It’s hard to really understand a place if you only spend time with other foreigners.
HXTC: Did you ever experience culture shock? Did you ever feel culture shock when you came back to the United States?
ND: I’ve thought that all of the places I’ve been to have been overwhelmingly similar to America. I didn’t really ever feel out of place while traveling. I guess the closest thing to culture shock that I’ve experienced was in Jerusalem when I went to visit a friend of a friend. We took the light rail out of the center of Jerusalem to a more residential area. When I got off the train, everyone around me was Orthodox. I’d never spoken to an Orthodox Jew. They all looked so different than me. Everyone was dressed conservatively and most of the women were followed by a trail of kids. When we finally got to where we were meeting her friend, I realized that all of the people who I thought were so foreign, were all speaking perfect English with absolutely no accent. Apparently it was a community of Orthodox, American Jews who had moved to Israel. I felt so ignorant for thinking we had so little in common.
HCTX: What’s the most poignant thing you’ve learned from traveling? And specifically, traveling alone?
ND: If there’s one thing I learned, it’s that people are overwhelmingly good. Most people will go out of their way to make sure that you are okay.
HCTX: Favorite foreign food you’ve tried?
ND: Nothing compares to being able to have fresh hummus and pita whenever you want it. Really, the whole Mediterranean diet, I’m convinced it’s what I was supposed to live on.
HCTX: Would you like to work abroad?
ND: All I really want is to work and live abroad. Life is too unpredictably beautiful to get caught up in plans. I feel like as long as I acquire the skills and experiences to work/live abroad, life will take me where I’m supposed to be.