Nine days and counting…

Students are scrambling to decide where they should study abroad for next semester. With the deadline just about a week away, we are either thinking twice about our decision, trying desperately to finish our last-minute essay questions or still trying to figure out where we should go.

While making the decision, there are a lot of different factors to keep in mind. First of all, consider what you want out of your experience. Do you want to go crazy with a bunch of your friends? Maybe you want to live with a host family and completely integrate yourself in the culture. Perhaps you feel the need to pick a destination where you won’t be surrounded with people you already know.

Some people pick for the food; some for the art. You can choose to go somewhere because it allows you to easily travel to a million other places or go somewhere you know you won’t want to leave even for a weekend.

The most important thing to keep in mind is to think for yourself. With a decision like what to get for lunch, if you let someone else influence you, you might regret the meal, but it’s just one meal. You can get the other sandwich the next day, or even for dinner.

If you let someone influence your decision about where in the world to spend five months of your life, the regret may hit a little harder. With this, we can’t just say, “Oh well, next time.” We, as students, are extremely lucky to be given this opportunity. Unless you find some epic job that lets you travel and experience another country for half the year, you aren’t getting this chance again. Make it worth every second.

Another important thing to consider is what’s going on in that part of the world. Do your research; avoid a country on the verge of war or revolution. While it would be cool to be able to see that all firsthand, I think it would get old pretty quickly. Whether we want to admit it or not, safety is an issue in a lot of countries and it is not something to be taken lightly.

If the experience of going abroad is something you really want, do it right. Go where you want to go because you are the one who wants to be there. If you end up with your friends, great! If you end up by yourself, guess what, you aren’t the only student on the program. You will make friends and share experiences with a whole new group of people.

Travel the world. See what you want to see. Experience culture. Eat native foods. Learn the language. Watch the sports. When you open your mind up to the world, there’s no telling what it will give you. So think really hard; what do you want? You’ve got nine days left...