As most of the people that follow me on social media know, I spent my last semester studying abroad in Florence, Italy. While people probably read countless articles a week on why studying abroad will change your life, I am here to tell you that all of those articles are true, no matter how repetitive they may be.

It took me a while to decide where I wanted to go before I settled on Italy. My sister had spent a summer traveling around New Zealand and Australia, and I had been to Israel and had fallen in love with it. I had been to London and Paris and knew that I had a fascination with Europe and European culture, but what I didn't know is where I wanted to spend a four-month-long adventure. I ended up applying to a program in Sydney, Australia and a program in Florence, Italy. After a long debate with the parental units, I finally decided that Florence was definitely the right choice for me.

Fall semester felt like it went on for an extremely long time because I was impatiently waiting to get abroad to Italy and travel across Europe. Once first semester finally ended I had to endure an unusually long winter break because my abroad program didn't start until the beginning of February. Once the week before my flight finally arrived, I completed packing up my entire life into two bags and made my way to New York where I would depart for my abroad experience.

I arrived at JFK International Airport where there were countless families saying goodbye to their children and Florence representatives telling us where we needed to go. My mom had departed earlier that day, so here I was about to embark on a plane to Italy and I had no idea what the hell I was doing (thanks, mom). Once I finally got my luggage situation taken care of, I headed to the gate to sit and wait for our plane to arrive. Finally, we boarded and we were on our way.

Once we got to Italy my roommate and I headed to our apartment in central Florence. It took us a few days to all get settled in and feel as though we were at home, because let's face it, we were basically living in an Air BnB for four months that our program provided us, so we needed essentials. The week we got there was an exciting, eye-opening adventure. Definitely was a culture shock to say the very least. Not to sound like a brat, but it was the first time in my life that I didn't have a dryer, so getting used to crunchy clothes was new. We went out to the Florentine clubs, the hottest restaurants, met new people and immersed ourselves into a new culture and new place.

By the time the first wee of classes started I was totally ready - and by "week" I mean two days because I only had classes on Mondays and Tuesdays. Not only was I excited to meet my classmates, but the first week of class also meant my first trip outside Florence was near. My friends and I had planned to go to Amsterdam for our first trip, because well, why not? The trip had a rocky start at the beginning, i.e. flight being moved to Bologna, delayed, missing connection in Munich to Amsterdam, having to sleep in Munich for the night. When we finally made it to Amsterdam it felt like a huge relief had just fallen over me. My roommate and I knew that this would be one trip to remember, or to not remember ;) Amsterdam is a special place; a place so completely different than America. There are the obvious factors like the Red Light District and the coffee shops, but overall the people are nicer than anyone I’ve ever met. To give you an insight, my roommate left her iPhone in a taxi, called her phone in said taxi and the driver came back and returned it upon request (with a small fee of course). Let’s face it, if that happened in America your phone would have been a complete goner.

After Amsterdam, my schedule was filled almost every weekend with a new trip to a new place. Trips were getting booked to Barcelona, Mallorca, Budapest, Dublin, Portugal, and Prague.

Trip after trip, I realized how important it was to travel. How important it was to be away from the people that are in your comfort zone. How important it is to live on your own in a foreign place. Sure, I knew plenty of people that were studying abroad in Florence, but the rest of my good friends were in other countries in Europe or all the way in places around South America, or they just did not go abroad. It was an interesting transition to go from somewhere where you can see all of your best friends in one place to being scattered all over the world. But after the entire experience, it is definitely for the best. I think learning how to be away from the people that you’re closest with, in a weird sense, makes you closer in the long run. Traveling and seeing the world gives you an experience that not all people have the opportunity to do. To be able to immerse yourself in another culture, speak their language and learn their customs is something that you can’t experience everywhere.

I can one thousand percent say that studying abroad was without a doubt the best thing I could do for myself and my well-being. Never have I had an experience teach me more about myself, who I am, and who I want to be. The people you meet when you’re traveling leave a special mark on your soul that is irreplaceable by anyone else. To experience a journey with someone else creates a special bond that will forever be cherished.

To end with a quote from one of my favorite authors: “Live, travel, adventure, bless and don’t be sorry." --Jack Kerouac