TABLE
OF CONTENTS
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Semester At Sea:
A
Voyage Of Recovery
Chloé Hirschhorn
He
was casually smoking a cigarette out on the
fifth deck of the ship when I asked if perhaps he had time for a short
interview to find out about how he came to be on Semester At Sea.
He told me he had an “interesting story” for me, and after a little
hesitation, he consented to the discussion. We started off
slowly; discovering that he is from Massachusetts, where last June he
told his mother he needed to take a semester off of school. His
mother suggested studying abroad instead, and suggested Semester At Sea
to him.
Without her knowledge, his mother had
suggested a solution to a larger problem. Her son had spent the past
year and a half using heroin, which he had recently realized was an
addiction that he needed to get away from. Semester At Sea seemed
like a good solution. Being on the ship, as opposed to a regular
semester abroad, meant he could not find or buy drugs. Pulling
the brim of his baseball cap down to hide his face, he admitted to
unsuccessfully attempting to find some in Hawaii. He had run out
of methadone the day before we docked, and was in constant pain.
Again fidgeting with the brim of his hat,
shifting his weight, he confessed, “I wish I could go back.” Without a
question to prompt him, he dropped his hands to his sides and shrugged,
“this is my rehab.”
Where for most this is a voyage of discovery
and a chance of a lifetime, for others it is what seems to be the only
way out. At the end of our conversation his fidgeting had slowed
to a halt, and he put out his hand, “I’m S., what’s your name?”
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