July 5

As cliché as it may sound, the Internet and recent telecommunication systems in recent years have revolutionized how we interact with others and it is impossible to imagine living without these systems. The Internet has become such an indispensable part in the global world because it connected many countries around the world closer than ever. We are able to send messages and files across the seas in seconds and not to mention that we are updated every second of what is going on globally. The ITU (International Telecommunication Union) standardizes the communication system so that countries are able to interact more easily and allows more remote countries to access information as well. Today, I visited the headquarters of the ITU for a scheduled personal tour around the museum. My tour guide was an official employee at ITU who earned the job through an internship a few years ago. As his former job, he worked at a company name Daum, which is a Korean search engine and applied to an internship at ITU because he wanted to be involved with technology in a global scale. Because of his astounding work ethic, the ITU gave him an official job in the Standardization department. From his background story, he epitomizes the fact that hard work pays off in the end and inspired me to do my best as well.

   Samsung sponsored the ITU museum and so visitors received a Galaxy Tab for the audio explanations. I thought the museum was well designed because it had some really cool artifacts like the replica of the Sputnik and the model of the first telephone. From the very beginning of communication through different forms of glyphs to futuristic communication technologies, I realized how essential communication is in our daily lives, making the responsibilities of the ITU all the more crucial. One cool fact I learned was that the Titanic tragedy could have been mitigated if communication got through easily. The nearest ship from the Titanic could have rescued many more had the communication crew been awake, which highlights the importance of communication in any conditions. Also, the Titanic radio operator sent a message saying “CQD” instead of the standardized “SOS” message calling for help. The nearest ship, not knowing what CQD meant, took some time figuring out what it meant, but it was too late when they finally sent for help. This highlights the importance of standardization for codes as well since communicating would be much harder if people used different codes to mean something. The ITU prevents all the obstacles like these from happening by standardizing codes to mean a certain thing and allows communication to be available 24/7.

   After looking around the museum, I started to reflect upon my journey so far and thought that time flew by so fast. All the excitement of visiting different organizations, and all the difficulties of travelling alone by myself have culminated in a rare experience that evolved me as a person. I never expected to survive in a French speaking country where I was a minority among mostly white and black people. To be honest, it was quite scary to step outside my comfort zone, but I was glad to have come this far and learned so much about what I wanted to do in the future.