Studying abroad is a beautiful thing. A week into my program, I found myself sitting on the rooftop of the National Gallery in Prague watching French New Wave films. It was one of those perfect moments—when you feel like you’re in the exact right place at the right time. These types of things, I thought, were a once-in-a-while deal but I’ve been lucky because I had one of these moments every few weeks. That’s not to say my semester was perfect; as the weeks trickled by, I found myself going through extreme highs and extreme lows. But my last days have definitely put things into perspective for me.
For my first twenty years, I rarely left New England. I grew up in a small town in the suburbs of Boston and never strayed past New York except for one or two vacations in Florida. Even when I went to college, I stayed close-by (Smith is a two-hour drive from my parent’s house). I don’t mind where I come from but I never saw myself staying in my hometown. Studying abroad seemed like the perfect opportunity to see what life was like outside of the small bubble I had known for so long.
When I researched different programs, I collected stories from everyone and came to Prague with an inflated perception of what my semester would be like. I was told that I was going to fall in love or find the best friends of my life. I wanted to travel as much as possible. My misconceptions left me feeling disappointed most of the time—I felt like I was doing something wrong or missing out on something important. But these anxieties forced me to think more about where I was and what was going on in my life. I learned how to be comfortable in my own skin.
Still, a lot of what you hear about study abroad comes true. I feel like I became a new person. I am so much more independent. I feel comfortable when I’m alone, especially in public. I know myself better than I have years. Being alone in a foreign country awakens your sense of self because you’re completely left on your own. You have to figure out how to survive, how to buy groceries in a store where no one speaks the same language as you, how to get from the airport to wherever your sleeping, how to ask for help and how to reach out to others when you are lonely.
Leaving Prague was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. I spent four days running around the city saying my goodbye's to what felt like home at this point. I saw my favorite opera in a beautiful wooden baroque opera house where Mozart premiered in Prague. I bid farewell to all the people I had met and got a chance to thank all the people who had helped me. I drank good beer and ate good food. But my semester ended in my favorite building in the whole city: St. Vito’s Cathedral. I climbed over two hundred stairs to the very top where I saw all of Prague from the highest point in the city.
I don’t know where life will take me in the next few years but I know that I’ll be back in Prague. I found a place in the world that feels like the most special place in the world and home at the same time. I found a direction for my life that I never could have explored if I had stayed home. Study abroad pushed me past my comfort zone and I ended up in places I only ever dreamed about in the past. My life in Prague isn’t close to being over but for now, I’m just excited to go home and introduce my friends and family to the new, best version of myself.
