When I was 6 years old, I knew exactly what I wanted to be when I grew up. Mulan was the ideal choice, but despite young me’s efforts to teach myself Chinese with only paper, pencil and a workbook, it didn’t work out. My other choice was an astronaut. Until I learned what black holes did.

The next ten years involved me exploring different things, trying to figure out what “that something” was. From fourth to sixth grade, a pop star. The first half of my sophomore year of high school, a psychologist. Middle school, a writer. I was a nerd that liked a lot of different things.

It all changed in the summer of 2014, just after my freshman year of high school. Three things created the spark that would come to fuel my love for all things international.

First, the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Even though I played tennis in middle school (and was quite unskilled at it), I had never been a sports fan in my previous 15 years of life. My youngest brother was a big soccer fan, and he helped me become a fanatic myself. There was something magical about the tournament.

Seeing people from so many different countries come together and put aside their differences to play soccer was amazing. After the USA got knocked out, I started cheering on Germany. Their 7-1 defeat of Brazil was what truly made me fall in love with soccer. My then 9-year-old brother cheering on Argentina and Messi in the final while I was all for Germany. It was wonderful.

The second thing was an anime called Hetalia. I have never been an anime fan, but Hetalia was the exception. Its storyline (which doesn’t follow a logical order) is based on stereotypical personifications of countries. For example, America is loud, eats burgers and calls himself the hero. England can’t cook, Japan is an introvert, Russia drinks vodka and France is a flirt.

The hilarious national stereotypes and dumb jokes actually inspired me to start learning more about the nations of the world. Soon enough, I was playing geography quizzes online every night, and within a couple of weeks, I could name every country, capital and flag in the world. Hetalia also sparked my interest in history (especially since I had just taken a world history class) and international relations.

Watch the first season here (Japanese with English subtitles or with English dub): Hetalia Axis Powers

Lastly, my Spanish classes in high school had a huge impact on me. I learned that I was a natural at learning languages, and my Spanish 2 teacher during my freshman year pulled me aside to tell me that I should seriously consider majoring or minoring in Spanish. Not only was I good at Spanish, but I loved learning it.

In our Spanish classes, we got to learn so much about the countries of the Spanish-speaking world, from Mexico to Colombia to Spain to Argentina. It not only increased my desire to travel the world but to keep pursuing my knowledge of other cultures and my cultural awareness.

But most of all, Spanish caused me to start learning more languages. At the end of my sophomore year, I decided to start teaching myself French. I ended up taking two years of French along with my upper-level Spanish classes, and it was a breeze for me since they were so similar. I continued to try my hand at as many languages as possible: German, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Dutch, Russian, Japanese, Norwegian and even Catalan.

Between my sophomore and junior years, I realized that all of my interests; soccer, Hetalia, music, language learning and traveling, had something in common; they all had some sort of international component to them. I started to discover Spanish music, and my French teachers introduced me to French pop and hip-hop.

I was caught between international relations and linguistics as my possible major. After attending a summer linguistics camp at the Ohio State University in my lovely hometown of Columbus, I decided that linguistics (and OSU) wasn’t for me. I just liked learning languages for fun, not all of the syntax, semantics and IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) we learned. International studies was the right choice for me. I could learn about history, politics, cultures, international relations and economics, but still study language. Since OSU was far too large for me, I turned to the University of Dayton.

Above: My entry for the 2015 Google Doodle contest. Credit: Emma Adams.

Dayton had an INS program I really liked. Instead of focusing on a particular region of the world like at Ohio State, you picked a concentration (a certain discipline with an international approach) and a language. They had six different concentrations, ranging from education to business to global security and more. There weren’t too many language options, which kind of disappointed me, but it didn’t really matter since I would be taking Spanish anyway.

By the time high school was over, I was committed to Dayton and international studies. That spring, I went on a trip with our neighboring high school’s Spanish club to Spain and France, and I had the experience of a lifetime. I decided then and there I was going to study abroad in Spain, and the INS program would make that a reality (in fact, international experience is a graduation requirement).

Above: The Sagrada Família cathedral in Barcelona, Spain. Credit: Emma Adams.

The faculty and students in INS were extremely friendly and welcoming not only on the admitted student day, but also during orientation, my international politics and Spanish classes, and our ASI 150 “Intro to the University” class.

Going in as an INS major helped me realized just how many opportunities I could take. One of the seniors in the program was an intern at the United Nations. So many other INS students studied abroad in other countries like Germany, China, Chile, Guatemala, Spain, Australia, France and Ireland. There were so many opportunities to get involved with UD’s international student community and meet people from other backgrounds.

As I sat in my Intro to International Politics class, listening to Dr. Bilo go on about stuff like Russia, terrorism and the theory of liberalism, I knew I had made the right choice.

And as I sit here right now, I am set to graduate with two degrees in International Studies and Spanish, along with the International and Intercultural Leadership Certificate. My INS concentration is Global Migration and Development. I will be heading to Madrid, Spain in Fall 2019 for a semester exchange abroad. I am planning on applying to the Critical Language Scholarship Program, and I would also like to minor in pre-law since I would like to go on to law school and study international law.

I haven’t watched or followed Hetalia in about two years now, but I am a bigger soccer fan than ever. Manchester United and the Columbus Crew will always be in my heart, and this summer I’ll be cheering on either England or France in the World Cup. I have playlists with music in dozens of languages from around the world, and I still play those dumb geography quizzes.

The great thing about INS is that it’s so versatile. There are so many directions and career paths you get to take. You get the chance to travel the world. You build your leadership and intercultural communication and awareness. You learn a new language.

To think it all started with the World Cup, a poorly made anime and my freshman Spanish class.