As a junior at Gustavus Adolphus College, I like to tell myself that I have learned a few things about the world and myself since arriving on this campus in the fall of 2011.

One thing I believe that I have learned at Gustavus is that life is a journey that is continuously unfolding, and the path we take may or may not be the path that we plan on taking when we start our journey.

Personally, the liberal arts experience at Gustavus has embodied this idea with the opportunity it gives students to expand their minds; to reach a higher level of consciousness than would be thought possible had they not been exposed to an area of study they might have written off as boring or irrelevant to their life.

As a Japanese studies major, I have been exposed to an underrepresented history of the Asian continent, primarily in China and Japan. I have also had the privilege of studying the Japanese language for nearly two years, an experience that has indeed changed the way I perceive the world. I am preparing to study abroad in Japan at Kansai Gaidai University, an exchange program offered by Gustavus, during the spring semester of my senior year.

While I truly believe that studying abroad in Japan will provide me with an unforgettable experience, I also believe that the journey I am currently taking to prepare for this experience has helped me in my attempt to become a well-rounded individual.

Studying a foreign culture may or may not seem like something that is conducive to earning a higher salary after graduation whether or not this is indeed the case, the mind altering experience one encounters when faced with an unfamiliar culture to appreciate human existence for what it really is, a unique and mysterious journey.

This journey has led me to reassess everything I thought I knew about the world, and about myself. That being said, I have come to realize that American culture is simply not that extraordinary. This is not to say that the land that is America is not something beautiful, a place that Americans should feel privileged to inhabit, but the political, economic, and social systems in this country revolve around the exact same entity, and that is money.

It is for this reason that Chinese language classes at Gustavus is reportedly being curtailed in an attempt to ease the burden financially on both professors and students with the decision to “accelerate a staged workforce reduction . . . to three to four percent.”

According to Provost Mark Braun, “students voting with their feet,” and not enrolling in level 200 and 300 classes at a high rate decided the workforce reduction, which includes cutting other courses in the Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures Department.

Although I may be slightly biased, discontinuing upper level courses of a language spoken by nearly a billion people on this planet just does not seem logical, especially with the reliance the United States now has on China in economic affairs. Although this is something Americans may not realize, China currently owns around eight percent of our national debt, a fact that makes perfect sense if you look at China historically.

It would likely be easy to blame the administration for this error in judgment, but the simple fact is American society has made the decision for us, as it has conditioned us to worship money as the most important thing in the universe. American culture has taught us that we must do everything possible to increase our overall return, disregarding anything else, such as thinking for ourselves about the causes of the problems that affect society.

If you take a look around, you may realize there is more to life than how much money you earn at the end of each month. I have cherished Gustavus so much because the classes I have taken have opened my mind to new ideas; ideas that often go against the norms that society tells us are true.

Gustavus has taught me that humans are inherently fallible, that it is human nature to make mistakes. With that being said, I believe if you see making money as your main priority in life, it is a positive only when you want to use it for the right reasons, such as educating yourself and others. But if you are simply trying to accumulate money for the sake of accumulating more money, then I believe it is a mistake and something that may be realized by looking at reality from an authentically human perspective.