Coco’s year with DIS, from fall through summer

Coco (she/her), Vanderbilt University, spent her sophomore year with DIS, studying in Copenhagen during the fall semester and in Stockholm during the spring. Following spring semester, she returned to Copenhagen for the summer to resume philosophy research with a DIS faculty member.

As a double major in Cognitive Science and Psychology with a minor in Philosophy, she delved deeply into her academic passions, enrolling in engaging classes — the Positive Psychology and Forensic Psychology Core Courses respectively — and participating in research assistantships both semesters. Whether she was connecting with Danish peers through a class at Københavns Universitet open to DIS students or joining the Outdoor Living & Learning Communities in Copenhagen and Stockholm, Coco was dedicated to immersing herself in her surroundings at each location.

Read on for Coco’s reflections and insights from her year abroad.

This year, I had the privilege of spending a full year with DIS in Copenhagen, then Stockholm, then Copenhagen again. I tasted the sounds of chewy, new words that didn’t quite fit in my mouth; went skinny dipping in inky black, icy Baltic water; and connected deeply with new, soon-to-be-old friends. I studied psychology, politics, and philosophy. Time slipped through my fingers like falling asleep in afternoon sunshine, and I can still smell the memory of campfire smoke and cinnamon-orange gløgg. My primary takeaway, though, is my understanding of how each of us engages with the world.

It seems to me that study abroad is a rare opportunity to re-examine the very foundation of subjectivity that we take for granted as truth. From language, to the units of temperature we use, to our perception of currency and value, there are so many seemingly neutral pieces of perspective that structure our reality. Yet these constructs texture everything we do. Have you ever sat on a train car with 30 strangers in complete, and I mean complete, silence? I now have, it’s weird. But, again, “weird” is my own construct.

As a Cognitive Science and Psychology major, I am fascinated by how ideology structures the biochemical matter of our brains, physically sculpting our understanding of the world and of ourselves. This reminds me of an optical illusion called the Müller-Lyer illusion. Two parallel lines, of the same length, appear different to the “average” observer when adjoined to differently facing fins at each end. This seemingly obvious illusion is culturally contingent. Reading about differing gestalt identities, however, is not the same as actually existing in a space where everyone else sees illusions you can’t — lives illusions you don’t. To feel the edges of infinite nuances composing a collective being, a culture. A map is only a metaphor.

Social contracts and unspoken agreements permeate our reality. Seeing your own “fact” from the perspective of fiction is scary but freeing. When we can accept that so many behaviors and ways of being are cultural, and that is to say subjective, even arbitrary, we can also see that there are many ways to be. In recognizing multiple ways of being, we are granted the agency of choosing how we want to be — who we want to be. This strikes me as an immense privilege.

I am deeply grateful for the memories, friendships, and opportunities I have gotten from study abroad. Approaching new experiences with an open heart and mind, I have grown in ways I cannot articulate. T.S. Eliot wrote, “We shall not cease from exploration / And the end of all our exploring / Will be to arrive where we started / And know the place for the first time” (Four Quartets).

Intrigued by a Scandinavian semester (or two)?

>> Consider a full year with DIS
>> Learn about a semester in Copenhagen
>> Learn about a semester in Stockholm
>> Check out Living & Learning Communities in Copenhagen
>> Check out Living & Learning Communities in Stockholm
>> Read about DIS Copenhagen research opportunities
>> Read about DIS Stockholm research opportunities