I have embarked on my first journey outside of the U.S, to live and adapt to another culture for four months. My choice of destination? Copenhagen, Denmark. Many people asked me, why Copenhagen? It’s so different, not your atypical study abroad experience like London, Spain, Italy. Maybe that’s why I chose it. Because I never know how to answer this question. Maybe I have always striven for something different.

And what a difference it has been. To think the events of the past two years have brought me here is quite the thought. It just goes to show the movement of life, your evolution as a person and an individual. Two years ago, if you told me I would be halfway across the world without my parents and family or a single hand to hold, I wouldn’t believe you. Two years ago, I came home from college and slept in my mom’s bed every night. Two years ago, I was waking up drenched in sweat from panic attacks. Two years ago, my sister couldn’t leave the room without me asking her where she was going. And now? I find myself in the place I have been looking for all along.

Those who have gone abroad will understand the transformation you make as a character. Being exposed to a different world has showed me a million different things about myself, about other people, but mostly it has shown me the smallness of these things. The mission of the meaning of life is not to find it, but is to create it. I have created my own meaning through my studies, my writing, the books I have challenged myself to read. I have created meaning of life through my bike ride to class every day, I have created my meaning through the people I have met and took into my new home. Every experience, every new place teaches you something about yourself. Going away to college surely does. But there is something more when you’re placed somewhere unknown. A place, as I’ve read, is a certain set of possibilities. I’m not sure what pushed me to study abroad, I’m not sure what brought me Copenhagen, for I am learning that every day. All I’m sure of is I made the right decision. When you’re bored with yourself and the people around you, when you know something’s missing, you need to search to fill the void. And whatever this means in your own way: do it. You will never find yourself if you remain comfortable in your daily routines with familiar people. I was comfortable at college, and although I look forward to the remaining year and a half and the thousand of changes it will bring, I needed something more. My thirst for something above normalcy was parching. But that doesn’t mean I wasn’t scared shitless. Being abroad has taught me to do the things that scare you shitless. I constantly receive messages from my friends exclaiming their happiness for me, how it seems I’m having such an amazing time, they can tell through the pictures. A picture can only depict the weight of one moment. No amount of travel posts, pictures, social media or Odyssey articles could convey accurately the solace I have found here. And that’s okay. Because I don’t want everybody to know about it. Copenhagen is my home, my little secret, the moment I have been waiting for my entire life. And it’s only the beginning. Leaving my family and my world at home has made my thirst even stronger: for London, for Amsterdam, for Prague, for Ireland. I want to see where I come from, I want to see where literature was born. But what I want to do most is enjoy the moment. I’ve learned what a privilege it is to only be able to live one moment at a time. And I will continue to cherish these moments like flowers in my life’s garden. You should too, whatever way this means. Push yourself. As my professor Liz Jensen, the author of The Ninth Life of Louis Drax, told us: every experience is useful. The uncomfortable experiences prove to be most rewarding. So challenge yourself to a greater whole. And if you’re thinking of studying abroad, do it. I promise you, the same things will be going on at your University when you return.

And remember what a privilege it is to live life, moment by moment.