Oh, the places you'll go...or more like all the places you went. Anyone who has studied abroad, whether it be for a semester, a summer, or a year, knows that you return a completely different person than when you left. After experiencing new cultures, trying new foods, and learning new languages, of course, you're going come back changed, and once the post-study abroad depression kicks in, you'll know that the experience completely ruined you. Here's why:
1. You now have tons of friends that are long-distance.
Remember when you didn't know how you'd leave your friends back home to study in a far off place? Well, now you don't know how you could leave your far-off place friends, and even worse, you literally don't know when (or if!) you'll see them in person again. You want to visit friends in Scotland, France, Germany, Africa, everywhere, but a) you don't know when you'll find the time, and b) you don't know how you can afford it. Nevertheless, you definitely do not regret that semester you spent by their side an ocean away from home. Not to mention you always have Skype!
2. You're surprisingly OK with getting lost.
Don't have a map? No problem! You'll now show up in a new city and walk around till you somehow make your way to your destination. Before studying abroad, getting lost used to make your heart beat faster and your palms sweaty. Now you embrace unknown surroundings and see them as adventures because you know that people would kill to have gotten lost in the streets of Paris or Spain like you did.
3. You're no longer phased by accents or different languages.
Remember when you used to watch a Harry Potter movie and geek out over each character's accent? Yep, you don't do that anymore. Actually, you don't even notice it anymore. If anything, the last time you were weirded out by an accent was when you landed in your home country and suddenly realized that everyone spoke like you again. Weird, right?! When you studied abroad you'd walk past people speaking in languages you'd never heard, and you wouldn't give it a second thought, so returning to a country full of people that speak English now feels unfamiliar.
4. You have no clue how to explain your study abroad experience to anyone.
"How was your time abroad?!"
Oh... do I start with when I rode the London Eye? Or what about Stonehenge? The cool pubs I visited in Ireland? Or Oktoberfest in Germany?
You know that most people don't want an hour-long spiel of you going over every detail of your adventure, but you also have no clue how to cram the most life-changing experience of your life into just one minute. Therefore, you'll usually go with a simple, "It was great!" no matter how much it kills you.
5. You're more comfortable in social situations.
You used to worry about walking into a room of strangers and making friends. However, this is now super easy for you since you've done this with a room of people speaking 20+ different languages. If you can make small talk with a person from a country you've never even heard of, you can do just about anything.
6. But you've also learned that sometimes it's OK to be alone.
You used to suffer from serious FOMO, but there were days during your study abroad adventure when you'd explore by yourself. These are some of your best memories, too. You loved reading in a coffee shop alone or traveling seven hours on a train to a new city by yourself, and because of the "me time" you had, you know now that alone time is actually awesome.
7. You hate that traveling is so expensive in the States.
You bless the day God created easyJet and Ryanair, but you also pray that He'll bring it over to States. Nothing beats traveling to a new country with a plane ticket that only costs £20. Now if you want to fly one state over you need to drain your entire bank account. Why can't all travel be like European travel?
8. You know now that "home" isn't just one place.
They say home is where the heart is, but you feel like your heart is in so many places at once. It's with your family in your hometown, it's with your college friends in your shared apartment, and now it's in this faraway land an ocean away. Is there any way you can clone yourself twice and be in three places at once? That would be really helpful.
9. You feel like an adult.
You thought maybe this would happen when you turned 18, but you've honestly felt like you've been in age limbo for quite sometime now. However, moving thousands of miles away on your own matured you pretty quickly. Money management? You've got this. Appointments and chores? Already booked and completed. When you're on your own in a new environment you have to grow up and start getting on top of things. You know this is one of the biggest lessons you learned during your adventure.
10. You now want to travel all the time.
You've been bitten by the travel bug, that's for sure. Maybe you thought that studying abroad would allow you to see all of the world that you wanted to. Wrong. If anything, it made you even more of a travel nut. You just lived in a new country for four+ months. You're fearless! You can do anything! Why not backpack across Europe then? Or try and climb Mount Everest? And you know you have to visit that one elephant sanctuary in Thailand! You've already looked up plane tickets, hostels and tours. Everything's set... and boy, are you ready to step foot on foreign soil and get lost again.
