It's hard for me to think of my expectations for Cuba. I'm the kind of person who doesn't like to watch the trailer of the movie I'm already sure that I want to see. If there is something I do hope to get out of studying in Cuba, it's a new personality--let me explain.
Confidence is something we emit to the world but it isn't pulled from thin air. Its source is garnered from an exaggerated delusion of how fabulous we ourselves are. This fuel that is excavated in bulky-- but sparse--batches, is burned and emitted through our personalities in numerous ways. Scholars in the nineteenth century wrote in Latin, including Nietzsche in his earlier years. Once he began writing more in German, he was able to write his best prose and philosophy. My confidence also comes from language. The way I speak. The way I listen. The way I communicate with people.
But unlike Nietzsche who learned Latin as a second language, I was raised speaking Spanish and English. One did not precede the other.
In English, I am extremely friendly, I can take control of a room or take a step back. In Spanish, I am shy, insecure, and quiet. My personality changes when I change my languages. I love speaking Spanish but I still don't feel my best self when I do.
If there is something I hope to get out of living in Cuba it's the ability to emit my confidence in Spanish.
