Whether it be a study abroad program, a semester exchange, or in my case the Disney College Program, when you leave your home, friends, and school for a semester these are 10 things you're bound to experience.
1. Complete and utter fear.
You have a countdown to when your new adventure will begin, but as the days wind down and you get closer and closer to leaving, you're terrified of what is to come and can't imagine leaving everyone and everything behind.
2. Home sickness after one day.
After you finally leave you immediately miss home. Whether you're only one hour into your drive, or still boarding the plane, a part of you wants to just turn around and pretend this was all a crazy dream.
3. Ease into it.
Just like the first day of college, new things take time to be great. Your first few days, or weeks, are still awkward since you don't truly know anyone yet. You talk to your friends and family back home every day making yourself miss them more and more.
4. Finding your niche.
There is nothing more amazing than finally finding the group of people that you were meant to meet on your journey. Once you settle into your life for the semester and you truly get to know those around you, you wonder how you went so long without knowing them.
5. Pure bliss.
Who would ever want to go back to sitting in a classroom all day when you can tour Europe, or go surfing in Australia, or go to the beach after work, or play in the Disney parks on your day off? Semesters like these are meant to make you never want to leave, and to give you the time of your life with the most amazing people you've ever met.
6. The talks about the future.
Of course you and your newfound best friends talk about what would happen if you all never left. The whole “we could stay here forever and not go home" conversations have you dreaming about a world where it is possible to not go back and to stay in this magical semester forever.
7. That moment you realize you love them.
Maybe it's the sunshine talking, or the alcohol, or the freedom, but at some point you looked around and realized you feel so incredibly blessed and you love the people you're surrounded by.
8. Winding down the days.
The countdown to when your adventure starts becomes the countdown to when you have to leave, and as that sad, sad day approaches you continue to wish you could stay and never leave.
9. Torn between home and here.
You miss your friends and family at home more than anything and you think about how your life would be different if you never came and stayed home. You picture yourself in their photos together and at family dinners and a part of you wants to go back right now, and the other part wishes they were with you on this adventure and able to experience everything with you.
10. Reminiscing on the best semester of your entire life.
When people encouraged you to go and “have the time of your life," you thought they were exaggerating and using an expression that gets overused every day. But when everyone starts asking you how your semester was, you know with every piece of your heart that you can smile and truly say “it was the time of my life."
