As cliche as it sounds, I truly cannot believe how fast my college years have gone by.
One day I was standing in the doorway of my first college dorm room, the next, I am looking at my final year as a college student.
I’ve accomplished much over the past few years but there was one item on my bucket list that I never quite got to (until now): studying abroad.
I know that I am late to the study abroad game.
Most of my friends studied abroad as early as their second semester or others during their sophomore and junior year.
But like jeans, there is a no one-size-fits-all when it comes to studying abroad.
It used to be that everyone followed the cookie-cutter routine but it has become much more than that.
If you can imagine it, it's out there.
Since senior year is when all the preemptive nostalgia happens, I questioned a few things.
Would I miss out on end-of-college activities? Would I look back and wish I had gone earlier instead of taking off the second-to-last semester of my college education?
As it turns out, though, being a senior abroad is pretty great and I wouldn’t want it any other way.
Even if I am the only student from my college apart of my study abroad program.
Home is right where I left it and will be when I go back.
Studying abroad is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I am enjoying it!
The first semester of senior year in college is just junior year part two, except everyone is worrying about failing at adulthood.
I decided that I would take that senior year existential crisis abroad.
I know that if I was home at the moment the “real” world, would feel very, very close.
But being thousands of miles away, all those intimidating things seem irrelevant, if only for a few months.
It helps me gain an idea of what I want my life to be like and what are my next steps.
Having grown during my previous years of college, I have a better understanding of what my likes and dislikes are as well as my comfort zone and limits.
This is why I’ve been able to “be in the moment”, focus on the people and places around me.
I know that the kind of study abroad experience I would’ve had last year as a junior would’ve been a lot different than the one I am having now.
At times, I catch myself looking around my campus in Norway, my temporary "home away from home" while thinking, "this is it".
Senior year isn't too late to be studying abroad.
I’ll be ending college on a high note.
When I look back at my final days in college, I’ll remember that I spent the first half of the year traveling the world and the second half spending time with my closest friends to being able to walk at graduation
