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by 'Local'
It is said that people who grow up in small island nations sometimes feel that their life experiences are different from others in big cities or big countries. Based on my encounters, I believe that there is some truth to this.
The first thing I noticed when I moved from the Cayman Islands to study Accounting in Florida was the population. My new reality was nothing like the small population of 40,000 that I was used to where I knew almost everyone or had previously seem them at a venue. There is this sense familiarity that one can get accustomed to, living on a small island nation.
Comparing this to a big city where the capacity of football stadiums was the same as the Cayman Islands’ population, I was just another commoner, a number only to be identified for payment of taxes or for tickets for traffic offences. Eye contact from others was also rare, unless it was from a fellow island-nation person who would fashion a hello in the form of a head nod (timing had to be exact).
My interactions were not limited to students from island-nations though. Eventually, I became friends with North American students.
Getting to know new people who were not familiar with island-nations meant that, sometimes I had to encounter awkwardness. I had to answer questions like: Can you swim under the island? Do you live in huts? What do you do for jobs there?
Sometimes, I did...
Read Full Story: https://cayman.loopnews.com/content/opinion-islanders-point-view
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