I didn’t cry. The day my parents dropped me off at the airport, Janurary 13, 2015, I didn’t cry. How could I? I was about to embark on a journey of a lifetime. I was studying abroad in London. One final hug for both of them and onto airport security I went. I turned around and, sure enough, my mother was crying, but not me. I didn’t cry. The best decision of my life to date has been the decision to study abroad. To be honest, the thought of studying abroad never really caught my attention. I already travel as it is with my family so I didn’t think studying abroad was something I needed to do. I was wrong.
There is no way to accurately describe the studying abroad experience. I can sit here and name all of the great things that you will get to experience, but none of that will do the entire experience justice. Everything you have heard about studying abroad is true, though. You meet new people and make new friends. You can travel for dirt cheap, you enter into a new culture, and it’s the experience of a lifetime. But there is more. And like I said, I can’t describe it. It happens within you. You change. The world changes you, and there is no going back.
It hits you almost immediately, the independence. One day you are at home eating dinner with your parents, and then suddenly you are walking down Baker Street in London by yourself looking for a quick bite to eat. It’s a great feeling, being independent. You feel like you can handle anything in this new city. However, you aren’t completely alone. Suddenly you have 20 new followers on Instagram because you are meeting fellow students who go to your school back in the states and other students from different universities as well. At first it’s just a casual hello to all the new faces, but that quickly changes. Soon you are taking pictures together, laughing and smiling about the day you just spent together shopping in Camden market or watching the video of you singing karaoke last Thursday at the Walkabout.
Don’t be fooled, you will make mistakes and have bad days. Everything is not perfect. But you handle it, and you realize that you actually can handle it. You see night life and you see a whole new culture, a part of the world that has been untouched by you until now. The world is at your fingertips. You jet off to Scotland, Paris, Amsterdam, or maybe Ireland, Prague, Budapest, Germany or Poland for a weekend. It’s all possible.
During the week you are in class with students from around the globe. You hear new ideas, different opinions. You take class trips to museums and art galleries and get lost trying to navigate your way there. But the second the weekend begins, you are ready for your next adventure. So maybe this weekend you catch a flight to Scotland and climb Aruthr’s Seat, and maybe next weekend you are on a train from Prague to Budapest to take a dip in the baths. It doesn’t matter, because every day is worth it. Every day is something magical. I have never been happier in my life.
Studying abroad ruined me. My life will never be the same once I return home from this semester abroad, it will be better. I have found a part of me that I didn’t even know was missing. I have found a new part of myself here in London.
My favorite part? Meeting new people. Because sometimes you are standing in line to board your plane and you meet a traveling Lutheran couple who shares a cab with you into the city of Prague and they end up paying the cab fee for you. Or maybe you befriend the local bartender and soon you guys are hanging out during the week and exchanging stories from the past that are quite embarrassing but you both are laughing until you are crying. Or maybe your cab driver in Budapest that barely speaks English offers to be your personal tour guide next time you visit the city and proceeds to write his email address down for you. You have no idea what the days will entail, but I can guarantee 100% that you will regret none of them. You will never regret this experience, you will only regret it if you never take the chance. After all, Y.O.L.O. You only London once.