Board the Flight and Go: Why Study Abroad Is for You!

By Elizabeth Hilfrank on September 17, 2017

Coming from a girl who just returned from a semester abroad in Madrid, Spain, and who is currently living vicariously through social media accounts of the new group of students there, here is why you should try your best to study abroad if the opportunity presents itself.

Retiro Park, Madrid

I distinctly remember standing in my little bedroom in my host mom’s apartment last April and realizing just how lucky I was to be there. People always tell you how much they “love” studying abroad and how great it is, but you will never fully appreciate that sentiment until you do it yourself. I also remember standing on the balcony of an Airbnb, and my roommate commenting, “Wow, can you believe this? Here we are, eating bread, standing on a balcony in Prague. Is this real life?”

Yes, yes it was.

I’m sure you’ve heard the many stereotypical reasons why study abroad is great, but I am here to clarify just why these reasons are stereotypes … because they are true.

Swiss Alps

First of all, there is no way to experience a new culture than to fully immerse yourself in it. You can read every textbook in the world, but you won’t really know how people live until you live with them. Studying in Spain made me really appreciate a slower pace of life with a “work to live” not “live to work” mentality. It also gave me a clearer perspective on just how much influence the United States has in the world. Being in Spain during President Trump’s inauguration was certainly an interesting time, to say the least.

Studying abroad also forces you to (literally) expand your horizons. Never before had I felt pushed so far outside of my comfort zone than when I debarked a plane with no friends, no family, and had to immediately get in a taxi cab to try to communicate in a foreign language what would be my new address for four months.

Then, even if your program is a specific American study abroad program with other U.S. students, you still have the challenge of making new friends. It is like freshman orientation all over again, but it is so worth it. My mom said when I came home from Spain that I seemed to have a lot more confidence. I was willing to show up alone to meet new people, and I was willing to take a risk and move to a new city for the summer. Had it not been for my experiences in Madrid, I do not think I would have had such courage.

Salzburg, Austria

So, while you meet new friends, and great friends at that, going abroad also makes you a more independent person. It is all up to you what you do and what you make of the experience. I now have friends at Pennsylvania State University that I will be driving up alone to see in just a little over a month. I also have friends in Washington D.C. that helped me to acclimate to the new city over the summer and who I will also be reconnecting with shortly. I can honestly say that I am so much more self-sufficient than I was six months ago.

Of course, I have to include the cliché part that studying abroad is just so, SO fun. When else in your life are you going to have the opportunity to country and/or city hop every weekend, to spend your afternoons sipping wine in a café and to have four months of your life solely dedicated to real-life cultural experience? Everyone says it is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I truly believe this statement. You do not know what the future will hold for you, so, if someone tells you that you can get ACADEMIC CREDIT to go abroad, then do it.

As a previous abroad student, I can understand the concern of missing an entire semester at the school you love, and the nerves that come with encroaching departure. I cried on my flight to Spain, but I also cried on my way back. It was a country I was so scared to enter but so sad to leave. Even when abroad, the FOMO is minimal because you are having fun too.

The experiences you have abroad will stay with you forever. Coming back to the United States, you will be much more aware of your surroundings. You will also be much more aware of diversity. Living in such a globally dominating country that is also classified as a melting pot, it is important to understand all that goes on around you. The abroad experience will give you a whole new perspective on life, and it could even bring you to realize where your true passions lie.

So, again, I reiterate to go abroad if at all possible. Not one person I know has ever regretted going, even if he or she did not have as good of a time as me. It is an opportunity to break down boundaries and to catch a glimpse of a little more to what lies within this big wide world.

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