1. The Revelation: Guess who’s studying abroad next semester? You! All those hours you spent tweaking your essays and double-checking your checkboxes paid off, and the program of your choice accepted you. Time to celebrate! Call a parent, tell a friend or maybe send a couple thank-you notes to the professors who wrote gushing recommendations for you. Now is the time to feel lucky, my friend! You can worry about brushing up on your [insert language here] later.
2. The Pre-Homesickness Dilemma: One day, a realization strikes you: gallivanting off in some faraway land means leaving behind all familiar friends, professors, cafeteria foods and everything else you love about your home institution. Soon, you find yourself preemptively homesick before you even set foot on foreign soil. It may manifest in a strange queasiness, as though you swallowed a fist-sized rock that now lives in your belly, or maybe in an unshakeable grumpiness. As for a cure, there’s good news and bad news. The bad news? Your homesickness will get worse before it gets better, especially once you start contending with culture shock. The good news? You will grow and develop in ways you can’t even imagine yet, and between your old friends and your friends-to-be, you’ll be just fine.
3. The Logistical Panic: Sometime around advising week, you will probably have a freak-out about your majors, minors and general academic situation (unless you’re attending a magic program that has exactly what you need to fulfill your requirements). Looking at your home institution’s class schedule, you’ll think, “I need this class that’s offered once every two years, and I won’t get a chance to take it before I graduate!” The best course of action is to talk to your advisor. Now. Right now. Go make an appointment. Your faculty serves as your best resource when figuring out your academic life; maybe you can do an independent study, or work out a deal with the head of your department. You won’t know until you try. Besides, on the off chance that you truly can’t miss a class for fear of jeopardizing your major, you need to know before you buy any plane tickets. And speaking of plane tickets ...
4. The Money Issue: Hopefully, you filled out oodles of scholarship applications to help with the financial strain of going abroad. Buying the plane tickets alone can feel a lot like selling your soul, and that’s one cost out of many. But fear not! The abroad office can help recommend sources for financial aid, and they typically have a good idea of how much you need to request. Don’t be afraid to ask for help with your scholarship letters; the prospect of asking for money is intimidating, but it’s better to be safe (and spell-checked) than sorry. Looking at all those numbers can be scary, but you’ve got tons of resources within reach!
5. The Exhilaration: You’re going to live in another country for an entire semester, immersing yourself in amazing food, new people and incredible classes. Maybe your heart leaps at the idea of the curriculum you’ve picked out. If you study a language, you might salivate over the mere possibility of fluency. Or maybe the thought of country hopping during weekends and holidays makes you giddy. No matter why you chose to study abroad, you’re on track to have a life-changing experience that will change and mature you. The exhilaration comes and goes, interspersed with the panic and stress that accompany the nitty-gritty, so hold on to the joy when it comes. As you prepare to go abroad, you may find yourself terrified, elated, totally lost, or all of the above, but hey—that means you’re doing it right.
