I am no pro at traveling, but I have been to many places around the world, both far and close. This summer, I decided I wanted to study abroad so I could see more of the world while I was young. While being abroad, I have learned many things and I want to share some of this wisdom to those who are planning or even thinking about going overseas.

The first thing has to do with the course you are planning on taking while away.

You will be given the option to take multiple courses while away and my first piece of advice is to ONLY TAKE ONE. Luckily, that's what I did, but some of my friends had to learn that the hard way. You want to be able to have more free time than time spent in class or doing homework. This way, you have more time to explore the country and the places around you.

Continuing with this topic, try to take a course that goes on a lot of field trips. This way, even while being in the class you will get to explore more of the country. The class I am currently taking while abroad goes on a field trip every other day. I honestly will only be in an actual classroom less than half the time I am here.

The next piece of advice is whether or not to do group-travel or independent-travel.

The whole reason I chose to study abroad was to get some time to myself. I wanted to figure out who I am and what makes me happy. Since this was my first time studying abroad I chose to do a group-travel for the reason of not really knowing what to do. Big mistake. Since I chose to do group-travel, from the time I got to the airport until we got to the country we were flying so I had to stick and do everything with the group.

Yes, it is nice getting to know some people before even getting to your destination, but our flight got canceled for two whole days and we were stuck in a city we had no idea about. If I were traveling independently I could have easily booked another plane ticket and been on my way, but instead, I had to wait it out with the group of people I knew nothing about in a city I have never been to.

The third piece of advice is to bring a buddy.

I know I said early that this trip was about getting to know myself and figuring things out on my own, but it never hurts to bring a friend along. Coming on this trip I knew absolutely no one. A lot of people are from the same university that I go to but no one that I actually know is here. Obviously, you make friends and hang out with people, but it would be nice to have a friend around to rant to or take pictures with or of you.

My last piece of advice is to bring a journal.

Some trips studying abroad are longer and some are as short as two weeks. It doesn't matter how long or short your trip is, you are going to want to remember every second of it. The best way to do this is to bring a journal with you and just take 5-minutes at the end of each day and write about what happened that day. This way, when you come back home you can open your journal and remember each day like it was yesterday.

Studying abroad gives people the chance to expand their horizon on life and the world. We live in this little bubble and begin to think that there is nothing else to life. Traveling is the greatest way to spend your money because you are guaranteed to come back to a happier person. When given the chance, go somewhere new and have a conversation with a stranger. It will change you.