To our dearest friends,

You are about to embark on an incredible adventure. Without us. It's fine. We're fine.

We will miss you.

We will forget to text you back.

We will shamelessly stalk your social media accounts.

We sincerely hope that you have an incredible experience that you will share with us in excruciating detail when you return.

You may feel a lot of pressure to make the most of your time abroad and to love every second of your time away from home, but embrace the bad with the good and allow yourself to not be enthusiastic about every new experience all of the time. Regardless of your location, life can be confusing and difficult to handle, especially when you are outside of your comfort zone. Take these moments not as signs that you shouldn't have embarked on your study abroad adventure, but move through these rough spots using them to remember all of the incredible things life has to offer you. Laugh at how ridiculous our journey through life is.

We will always be here to remind you of how strong and brilliant you are when you lose that confidence during the many new and uncomfortable situations you encounter abroad.

Many who have gone abroad before you have said their experiences have changed their lives, their world views, their opinion of coffee—but please do not force yourself to change because you think you are supposed to.

We loved you before, will love you during and will continue to love you after your time abroad.

You will make plenty of new and amazing friends while you are away from us, and we will love them as much as we love you because they will be supporting you through your journey better than we could. While we may wish that we were sharing the experience of going abroad with you, we are excited that you have found a new gang of partners-in-crime with whom you can commiserate through the FOMO and celebrate all of each other's victories.

We expect to be introduced to all of your new friends when you return.

The FOMO will be real, and there is nothing wrong with that. While you may be having an incredible time being immersed in a new culture, you will miss the familiar aspects of our campus that you have grown to love. Having FOMO doesn't mean your experience abroad isn't living up to its life-changing potential. It means you are a human being with diverse preferences and a tendency towards nostalgia. Don't let the FOMO consume you, as all of our campus's greatness will wait patiently for your return.

We will not be helpful when it comes to avoiding FOMO because we want you to miss us as much as we miss you. We may not be making new friends in front of the Eiffel Tower, but we did that thing you like doing after getting food at your favorite restaurant. Rest assured that all of our FOMO-inducing Snapchats mean that we're thinking of you. We are forever conflicted as we wish you were here with us, but know you are having an incredible time without us abroad and want nothing more than your complete and total happiness.

With love,