I am a double major in Spanish and Communication Arts with an Emphasis on Public Relations and a Concentration on Professional Writing. As a Spanish major, I was required to study abroad. Being the excited freshman I was at the time when I declared my two majors, I put the semester abroad in the back of my head and opened my mind to all of the other activities and opportunities that were awaiting me. In reality, I was actually ignoring the fact that I was terrified to leave my comfort zone to travel abroad.
Despite my fear of the unknown, December came and I started to pack as I geared up to spend the next five months in an unfamiliar city in an unfamiliar country. I was so lucky that I had my mom and sister by my side every step of the way. Literally. They came with me all the way to Pamplona, Spain to help me get situated in my new home. You see, I only live a half hour away from W&J, therefore, I go home frequently. So now you understand why living on my own for five months straight was a big deal during my junior year of college, even though, technically, I had been doing that for two-and-a-half years prior.
Come to think of it, I have always been one to stick with what feels comfortable to me. Although I like a good challenge every now and then, it is not all that often that I venture outside of my comfort zone. Surprisingly, this characteristic changed when I went abroad during the spring semester of my junior year.
My first day at the University of Navarra gave me back some of my comfort I had been previously lacking; there was another W&J student attending the same university. Even though we had never met at our small, liberal arts school in Pennsylvania, we instantly became best friends at our large university in Pamplona. This made the transition of being abroad much easier for the both of us.
Not only did I have a friend from W&J who helped me feel comfortable abroad, but I also made several other friends at my university. I was so lucky to have these new friends and I am so lucky to still have them as some of my closest friends today. I know I will cherish all the memories we made, not only in Pamplona but also in all of the other cities and countries we travelled to together. I have even been able to visit with some of my close friends I made in Pamplona, here in the US. Cool, right? The fact that I still talk to all of them, and I still talk to one of them every single day, proves that I had definitely found my new comfort zone, even if I was 4,000 miles from home.
