It Was and It Wasn’t…

by Juliana Montgomery

Truth #1 – the memories told.

I remember my first experience traveling internationally more from stories my family has told than as an actual memory of my own. I was two years old when my mother and aunt took me to Mexico. My mother often recalls how on a beach in Mexico I walked with my “independent, fat-bellied self” to the point where the ocean reached the shore only looking back to her when
she called my name to say that I’d walked far enough alone. She came to join me rather than calling me back to her. Story, memory or otherwise, I was fortunate to have this trip as one of many international experiences early in my life and this is the type of approach I continue to take to landscapes I wish to explore. My mantra is now to: “search for identity within seemingly unidentifiable places” and somehow, international travel never lets me down.

Myth #1 – you have to be rich to travel.

The furthest I agree with this statement is that one must be rich in the breadth of one’s thinking
to fully experience international travel. I am from a middle-class working family and nearly every
opportunity I’ve had to travel internationally has come from a desire to “go” and a willingness of
my family to help me “go” rather than eyeing the financial barriers as how to “get there.” This
spans travel from Italy to Egypt with my family as a child; to competitive ski training from
France to New Zealand as an adolescent; to travel from South Africa to China for programs in
college; to international internships and work experiences in Bosnia and Czech Republic. In
most instances, it was my desire to travel matched with my willingness to explore the options
that could get me to my destination that enabled these experiences.


Myth #2 – my family and friends don’t want me to go and won’t forgive
me if I do.

Having attended a Historically Black all women’s College, I am aware that this myth runs
rampant because the Black community, perhaps more than many, is protective of our members.
Often, it has more to do with the distrust one’s family and friends might feel with the world
beyond the periphery of what is comfortable than with anything else. This is a completely
legitimate fear considering the state of world affairs, however, what might help is to change one’s
attitude from “whether to go” to “where to go”?! Thoroughly researching international
destinations and including one’s family and friends in the research process is imperative.
Because we live in an increasingly intercommunicative global world, international travel and
sensibility is becoming a requisite for growth in personal and political awareness. It is a
necessary addition to integrate into one’s life if one has not already.


Truth #2 – the known unknown.

I am a bit of a nomad—one with a wandering existence who has the good fortune of having
“surrogate” families around the world who offer their homes and welcome me as one of their
own. I consider Prague, Czech Republic my true home and have collectively lived in the Czech
Republic for over a year. My first extended stay was during my junior year fall-semester abroad
as an undergraduate. That semester brought to me an intense awareness of the significance of
continuously immersing myself in cultures far removed from any I already know. To interact
almost childlike in language and rudimentary communication, treading intently yet lightly
through a forest of unknowns.

In Czech language Prague is translated “Praha”, which comes from the root “Prah”—meaning
“threshold." It is indeed a threshold to the life of the Czechs, to an appreciation of Central and
Eastern Europe, to an understanding of the cultural and political identity in the once joined
Czechoslovakia and now independent Czech and Slovak Republics… While there during my
junior year in fall 2004 I took film courses at a film academy in Prague called FAMU, interned at
an international documentary human rights film festival called One World, lived with a Czech
host family who happened to be Italian, and began to learn the challenging declensions of the
Czech language. Many individuals I met during that 4-month visit were influential in my
application for a Fulbright Fellowship to return to Prague and create a documentary. And to
Prague I indeed returned in September 2006 for a 10-month stay as a Fulbright Fellow in which
I produced and directed a documentary about feminism and the images of women in Czech
films and visual mediums beginning with the Czechoslovak New Wave in the 1960s.

Myth #3 – traveling internationally is just for…

It’s a personal decision as how to finish this sentence and one, whether one travels or not, that is
for better or worse based on personal biases. Traveling internationally is not just for anything!
It’s not simply for work, nor, simply for play, nor simply for the experiences while abroad, nor
simply for the stories one collects for one’s return. It is for all of these benefits and for helping
to shape the person one wants to be.

Truth #3 – be new!

Before departing for my Fulbright year in Prague, a friend of mine gave me a copy of Anna Deavere Smith’s Letters to a Young Artist. My friend had the book signed by ADS and in it she wrote, “To Juliana, Be New! Anna Deavere.” I feel as though I feverishly search for the “newness” I can bring to opportunities I am given to which I then hope to contribute. I often question what direction it will all take, how it will all come together and what I will present in the
end?! Perhaps the answer to this will never fully reveal itself, however, I am certain that the energy I feel for this search to continue is because I have begun to experience the magnificence
of the world from the perspective of many different cultures. The salience of finding newness for newness sake is ever present. I encourage you to give it a try!


Juliana Montgomery is a 2006 Magna Cum Laude graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta, Georgia.
She is currently in post-production for her documentary project, "Shocked by She: A Czechsploration of
Images of Women," which is scheduled for completion in 2008.