The most recent abundance of advertisements for off-campus study group information stations, along with my villainous Timehop App, have forced me to ponder my study abroad experience in Paris, which I was in the middle of one year ago today. I cannot help but think of every single aspect that defined my study abroad experience and made it so phenomenal and metamorphic. Such elements include the educational and impressionable travel adventures I had, the fond memories and meals I shared with my gracious host family, and the plethora of knowledge that I gained including becoming fluent in the French language. Ah oui, Je parle français très bien si vous si vous souhaitez parler en français avec moi bientôt.
Although I had an incredibly positive study abroad experience and the memories and skills I obtained in those four months will stay with me the rest of my life, I cannot help but put myself in the shoes of those students who are attending the off-campus study information sessions and just beginning the process. There are a million and one different tasks that must be completed in order to to make study abroad possible, including cumbersome ones, such as deciding where to travel, and obtaining a study visa, among others. These are all incredibly distressing and coming to a definitive verdict for a majority of these matters is no easy feat. However, through all of the complex choices that need to be made, drawing from my own experience as well as my friends' experiences, it appears as though the most daunting part of the pre-study-abroad experience is that dreaded goodbye.
Huh? Saying goodbye? Out of all of these life-changing occurrences that coincide with studying abroad, saying goodbye is the most challenging part of this whole process? Saying goodbye is a natural human interaction that we do more than a dozen times a day. However, the anticipation of saying goodbye to your loved ones before you leave them for four months and plan on being about, one thousand plus miles away, is extremely anxiety-provoking and frightening.
There are several different kinds of thoughts and questions that naturally cross one's mind before that momentous farewell. Some of the ones I have found to be the most common, and the ones I generally posed to myself, are: "What happens if something major occurs while I'm gone?", "Will I change much?", "Will my friends change much?" Before I embarked on my journey, these questions rattled me to my core and ultimately made me question my decision of studying abroad, and my sanity on how I thought I could leave my friends and family for an entire four months.
Although these issues and fears may seem like a reason to not study abroad at all (as you can see they almost prevented me), you cannot stop yourself from studying abroad out of this fear. Like I said, saying goodbye is an everyday human interaction that we do, twelve plus times a day, without a second thought. This goodbye to friends and family may seem huge and different from the ones you do on a daily basis, but those four months made that brief period of pain and heartache absolutely and totally worth it. When else in your life are you going to be able to travel all of Europe, or climb The Great Wall of China, or ride an elephant in Thailand?
It's easy to throw off this idea into the future with false ideas like, "I have plenty of time for that", or "I will do it when I graduate." It's convenient to put travel plans in a nice neat little box that is tossed off into the "future plans" category of our lives. But unfortunately life is unpredictable and it does get in the way and impedes us sometimes from achieving opening all of those boxes.
No one can predict where they will be in the years to come, and if traveling or studying abroad will even be feasible. Thus, you have to live in the moment, and overcome that daunting goodbye and study abroad while Colgate University graciously offers you multiple opportunities to study abroad in numerous places across the globe for a semester, a year, or even just three weeks.
I do not want to undermine the capabilities or decision of those who choose or have chosen not to study abroad. Each person ultimately has to make the decision that is best for him or her and the one that best suits his or her needs and desires. However, if the thought of goodbye is the primary barrier that is halting you from taking that big leap, then I must urge you to not let that hold you back. I know that goodbye is scary and the sheer thought of leaving the comforts of home and American culture for four months is absolutely frightening.
The night before I left to commence my study abroad experience, I sobbed so much saying goodbye to my dad and brother that my dad compared it to the time when I was a hysterical 10-year-old novice sleep-away camper who had to be forcibly removed from my parents arms at the conclusion of visiting day. My tears and anxiety seemed juvenile, and I felt pathetic as a 20-year-old adult who could not stop crying. Yet, I was petrified of the goodbye and wanted so to avoid this task that I was willing to withdraw my application at the last minute and return to Colgate and abandon the whole study abroad plan I had been preparing for months.
However, once I was able to recover from the goodbye and face the other goodbyes (I said goodbye to my mother and cousin last) with a little bit more courage, I was able to begin to enjoy my reality and take advantage of my extraordinary situation. The proceeding four months were filled with adventure, excitement, travel, edification and intense cultural immersion that made me a much stronger and knowledgeable person. In the long run, that daunting au revoir seems like just a small hurdle in my overall incredible and life-altering experience.
