Pre-Trip Thoughts

Expected Duration: 40 minutes // Deadline: July 23rd, 2017

“Your assumptions are your windows on the world. Scrub them off every once in a while, or the light won’t come in.”

— Isaac Asimov

What is your mind prepared to experience?

Your writing skills will be a big focus in our first term together. As a way of building those skills, you will focus on writing about Botswana and your experiences within this first country in our travels. This will take place during our sessions called Writing Foundations.

Within your TGS Moleskine, spend some time writing down your thoughts, ideas and preconceptions sparked by the following prompts. We all have the tendency to expect certain things out of something we have yet to do or see. This exercise is about being mindful of these preconceptions. You will be referring to these later when we are together in Botswana, and these notes will be a private resource for you as you continue to perfect your writing skills.

Don’t worry about being “wrong” or "politically incorrect" in this. Especially since this is private, write down exactly what you know or think. If your idea of Botswana is the cartoon world depicted in The Lion King, that's completely valid to write down.

You will see later that identifying your preconceptions now will help you learn a lot about the evolution of your worldview and how you can best describe your own growth as a thinker, traveler, and writer.

Also, don’t worry about using full sentences. You can write these ideas down as bullet points, word clouds, mind maps, or sentences:

• What are some things you expect to see in Botswana?
• How do you expect the people in Botswana to be like?
• What do you expect the environment will look and feel like? Consider all your senses.
• What do you think it will be like to attend TGS and "be in school" while in Botswana?
• What interests you most about the upcoming location?
• What do you think will be your biggest challenge as the result of being in Botswana?

Submission instructions

Simply bring your written notes from the prompt above within your Moleskine to Botswana.