‘Embrace the Change’

I’m Filipino; I consider the Philippines home. But my parents live in one-bedroom apartments in Manila, so I don’t have a physical home there. Instead, home is my bedroom in Somerville. It’s got all the things I've accumulated since boarding school. I have some mementos from childhood in storage, but the possessions that matter most are what’s with me right now at Tufts.

From growing up in a lot of cities—Bangkok, Singapore, Saigon, Jakarta, Paris—I know moving countries can be really hard. Social interactions, cultural values … everything’s different from what you've grown up with. And at first, some things may just not make sense.

But from my own moving around, here’s my advice for my Global Orientation students: Instead of sticking with what’s comfortable, embrace the change. Dip your toes into the unfamiliar. When people start out in GO as shy freshmen, there’s nothing more fun than seeing them later, leading their clubs, finding their rhythm on campus.

My own time at Tufts has been about more than just my grades. It’s easy to get consumed by work, there’s no point in reaching your milestones if, along the way, you don’t make the most of our community. I think you make life worthwhile by really valuing the folks around you. As a third-culture kid, I’m always curious to learn about all aspects of the people I meet, whether it’s a GO first-year student, a fellow member of the Philippine Student Union or the men’s rugby club, or someone whose photo I’m taking. All the Jumbos I meet have their own story to tell and I want to hear them all, and, in the process, make the most meaningful connections I can.

—Jaime Dimalanta, Class of 2026, Child Study and Human Development major and Global Orientation host advisor.
 

Our Tufts is a series of personal stories shared by members of the Tufts community and featured on both Tufts Now and Instagram.