Bryan Zygmont Space Nerd Analysis

Bryan Zygmont, Assistant Professor of Art History, delivers an intriguing and comical lecture while explaining how the obstacles of language, culture, and differences he faced when granted a Fulbright Scholarship to teach in Poland for six months helped him grow overall. Zygmont began the discussion with his own school picture and defined himself as a “space nerd”. He owned space patches, space books, and was “all in” with his obsession. He listed off many controversial events that have happened throughout the years, but Zygmont believed the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger that killed all seven astronauts aboard tops the charts. All this leads to the inspirational quote made by John F. Kennedy, “We choose to go to the moon and
do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” Kennedy was determined to send astronauts to the moon for 200 hours, when the astronauts that currently have visited have stayed no longer than 10 combined.
Taking risks may lead to failure, but the ultimate result could be growth.
This growth is often celebrated whether it’s big or small. Before his own story, he discusses George Mallory. Mallory was born in 1896 and had the desire to climb Mount Everest in 1924. He failed and was constantly being questioned, “Why?” and his reply was simply, “Because it’s there.” Mount Everest was the biggest obstacle on the planet, and Mallory was determined to conquering it. His last expedition to climb the steep mountain, he disappeared and wasn’t found until 75 years later. He died trying to achieve one of the biggest obstacles known to
man.

Zygmont’s story has the same guidelines as Mallory’s, but goes more into depth. Zygmont was in search of obstacles, but was fearful of the challenges he may face. Fear of failure is better than being brave and trying not to succeed was far worse than not trying. He attempted to overcome both these fears after his 30 day trip to Poland in 2010, he wanted to go back and teach and decided to apply to the William Fulbright Program. He faced a new set of fears: not worthy and patience. He turned in his application July 31st and finally received his first response in October, a thin piece of mail. Too scared to open the “I’m-not-good-enough” sized piece of mail, he waited to open it. Finally, getting the courage, he discovered the letter was only informing him his application had completed the 2nd step. 7 weeks later, another petite sized envelope came with the first sentence saying, “Congratulations!” Too excited to read the rest of the letter, he didn’t discover it was only telling him his application only moved on to a 3rd step until a couple minutes later. Finally four months had passed and in March he received an email informing him he had been selected as a Fulbright Scholar to Łódź, Poland. He was extremely happy, but immediately was concerned with the language barrier. He purchased Rosetta Stone and after ten weeks he could only speak the basics. The language barrier in Poland was only one of the shocks Zygmont faced in Poland.
He encountered a great culture shock once he arrived to the University, numerous nervous breakdowns in both the grocery store and postal office, and the realization and appreciation of what he had in Dubuque and was only becoming more apparent everyday. The student’s wouldn’t read his assigned homework nor participate in class, but expect him to lecture for 90 minutes straight without discussion. Once he received a class roster midway through the semester he found on average only 25 of his 63 students would be actually showing up to class. Lastly, his deprivation of his wife was growing more prominent daily. They would video chat as often as they could, trying to overcome the obstacles of time differences. Spring Break and his wife had arrived in Poland and Zygmont was more ecstatic than he had been in a while. His wife and he visited 12 different beautiful places of Poland and once Spring Break had come to a close, he only had to be there on Wednesdays to teach his two classes. The four months he spent in isolation and away without his wife were long and dreadful at points, but he found joy in the situation. The 180 days awarded him with a better appreciated of Clarke, Dubuque, sun, his wife, and so much
more. This speech kept me on the edge of my seat and begging to know more about his journey. The topics he arose gave me a greater appreciation of what I have and how lucky I am to understand the main language, be surrounded by loved ones, and be comfortable with my surroundings. Although I’m content with these factors, his main point to take chances excited me. The thrill of being brave and doing the unthinkable can possibly lead to failure, but there will always be a benefit. The biggest lesson I got from this lecture was to not be afraid of the bad outcomes, but to be excited for the lessons that could be learned.