Spending a semester abroad has always been a dream of mine, and suddenly, that dream is slowly but surely turning into a reality. It’s truly crazy to think that next semester will be spent not here in Newark, Delaware, but across the world in Tel Aviv, Israel with a foreign language, new school, and so many new experiences.

I've always imagined this would be the fate of my spring semester of junior year, but until I officially got accepted into the program and saw my flight was booked (so permanent… made me a little nervous) I couldn’t actually put the whole thing into perspective.

Printing out the form to leave the University of Delaware for a whole semester to pursue the abroad experience of a lifetime really made things feel real. I always look forward to the exciting weekends and breaks I have coming up to make the long weeks go by more quickly, but now before I know it I’ll be leaving for winter break, to pretty much have a five-month-long break (with some classes here and there of course).

Some friends continue to say they can’t imagine leaving our home school, especially home country for such a long period of time, but to me, this is something that my college experience would not be complete without. I would genuinely feel so lucky to study abroad in any country and get a feel for the culture and lifestyle anywhere.

I applied to multiple programs in multiple countries, something that abroad applicants usually stray away from as they tend to be set on one single destination. As open as I was to study anywhere I was given the opportunity, it just feels right that I will be following in my mom’s footsteps, taking on the city of Tel Aviv like I had always pictured myself to do.

So each measure I take to prepare for my semester abroad is getting me a step closer to my next big adventure. Each course I get approved to take in Tel Aviv is one little step closer to actually being there. And luckily right now the only emotions I have towards this wild adventure are excitement, oh and some stress since filling out paperwork in a timely manner has not always been my strong suit. I will be extremely surprised if my emotions don’t change to nervousness as the time gets closer since this will be such a new and potentially scary experience but in the best way possible.

All I can do now is make the best of the remainder of this semester here at Delaware because soon enough I’ll be brushing up on my Hebrew all the way in Tel Aviv. Although as the next couple months go by my nerves will most definitely set in, I know I am so fortunate to be able to have the ultimate abroad experience in the very near future.