The idea of traveling in your 20s is always spoken of as being one of the best things a person can do in their lifetime. Most of my fellow millennials treasure the idea of what it would be like to see the world and experience things you couldn't possibly dream of from the comfort of your own home. Some of the best days of our lives are spent in our college years, so why not take the opportunity to see the world and study abroad, while also making lasting memories at such a pivotal point in your life?

The summer before my junior year of college, I was lucky enough to be granted such an amazing opportunity. Studying abroad was never something I thought I would want to do. The idea really didn't even peak my interest until I had been hit with a major change in my life that had me craving something new and exciting. All I had wanted was the chance to get away from it all. Going to a small school seemed to make my problems, everyone else at the school's business. Walking around when I was in a state of self pity and sorrow left me feeling like the only solution was to change. I needed to be excited about something again, and the idea of living in a foreign country for an entire month was just the cure I needed.

I sent in my application, and sure enough, I was accepted. But the joy I felt when I read that acceptance email did not even come close to all of the feelings that I encountered once I landed in Italy. There's really nothing like being thrown into a completely different environment, completely out of your comfort zone, left with just your own devices to get you by. While I had two of my friends by my side, nothing could really prepare me for how much of an impact that month would make on me.

I got exactly what I needed. I was in a state of euphoria for the entire month I was there. I would wake up every morning and it still would not feel real that I was living in Florence, on my own, with the world at my fingertips. Every Friday through Sunday was a different adventure in a different location, none of which were anything like the one that preceded it. My mom had always told me stories about how when she was my age, she went to the Amalfi coast, and how it was her favorite place in the entire world. Sure enough, it became one of mine as well.

To this day, I still tell people about how one of the best days of my life was when everyone from my school that was living in Florence together rented a boat, cliff jumped, swam through grottos, and experienced the one of a kind black sand beach that Positano has to offer. Everything about that day was perfect. I pushed myself to jump off that cliff and let the adventurous side of me, that I had never gotten a chance to show before, shine through.

I grew as a person in so many ways throughout this month of my life. I was still recovering from a really tough point in my life, and being in a foreign country without my parents, getting to call my own shots and truly live my life to the fullest, was the best medicine I didn't quite know I needed. I started becoming a better version of myself, and I have Italy to thank for all of it.

One of the most exciting and highly anticipated parts of the trip for me was knowing I was going to go to Croatia. Having a Croatian heritage made me feel so strongly connected to such an amazing country. Nobody in my immediate family had ever been there and getting to be the first was something I will never take for granted. Once I stepped off that coach bus, I was instantly flooded with the sense that I really was at home. Experiencing the country my great-grandparents moved from firsthand was incredibly overwhelming, in the most beautiful and poetic of ways. It's something I will tell my kids about some day: how proud I was to be embracing such a huge part of me that I never could fully grasp before.

This all sounds pretty great, but there were times when things were not one hundred percent perfect. I missed my family a lot. Many of the people studying abroad with me had their families come visit them and it made me realize just how much I need my parents, no matter how independent I become. The culture shock was also pretty drastic. Living an entire week and a half in 100-plus-degree heat with no air conditioning made those first few days quite uncomfortable. Having to adapt to the fact that personal space and boundary issues were completely different, and as a female I should expect to be randomly groped and touched and have people stand way too close to me at any given moment, when all I am trying to do was go out with my friends and have fun, was a bit of an adjustment, for sure.

But all of these things came together to make lasting memories, and also shape me differently. You can never really understand another place if you've never been there. Your imagination can only do so much for you. Learning how the people of other places operate and go about their unique lives, gives you an incredible sense of appreciation for what you have. It also broadens your mind to the possibilities of what could be. How an accident of birth left you somewhere else, but this is how it could've been.

It was always so remarkable to me that someone could live on the Amalfi Coast. It seemed way too picturesque to actually have it be someone's place of permanent residence. Just seeing how vastly different Florence was compared to our major cities like New York or Philadelphia was amazing to me. Being put in so many situations where I could fully immerse myself in what another culture had to offer made me more open to new things. It helped me realize that it's okay to live your life, on your own terms, and not care about what anyone else has to say about it.

I became friends with people I otherwise never would have met if this trip did not bring us together. People I probably walked by previously without even noticing, are now people I get so excited to see on campus. Some of us feel more like family than friends. One of the most beautiful things about the trip was how we were all in it together. Every one of us had everyone else's back. We all looked out for each other and we all stuck together in a way. It was kind of like The Three Musketeers, just with 40 of us.

I also now have a greater appreciation for how life can throw the unexpected at you. The combination of being in an unfamiliar country as well as having unexpected events occur is somewhat of a harsh combo at first. Within the first twelve hours of being in Florence, I was hit by a car (OK, so it was more like a love tap from the car, but still pretty shocking to me). I walked away totally fine, and no one other than my friends had even blinked an eye at the situation. That was when I learned that being a pedestrian didn't give me the same right of way when walking on the streets anymore (but seriously, it's like they hit me on purpose). Having an anxiety disorder, on top of being in another environment that's entirely unfamiliar, was the perfect recipe to throw me off my game. Having an anxiety attack at home where I was comfortable and felt safe is one thing, but being completely unfamiliar with my surroundings made it feel even more suffocating than anything I had ever experienced. Learning how to bounce back from that was truly a personal gain.

I think the cherry on top of the unexpected things that occurred was having multiple flight delays, cancellations, and even having two planes totally break down when it was time for us to go home. At this point in the trip, we were all really sad to leave, but being away from friends and family for so long definitely had built up some anticipation to go home. A random 14 of us from the larger 40 were somehow overbooked and needed to take an earlier flight to Switzerland, where we'd eventually take our connecting flight to America. Sure enough, over 18 hours of traveling later, Swiss airlines leaves 300 passengers completely stranded. Some had families with little children, others were elderly, and then 40 young college kids at our wit's end, pushed to our limits and on the verge of tears. Next thing we know, our entire group is separated and all of us end up going home at different times on completely different days. No offense to Switzerland, but I really did not enjoy spending three days there in the middle of nowhere, when I should've been at home with my family.

Ten angry phone calls from my friends and I and our parents, one very strongly worded email to Swiss Air ,courtesy of myself, and a 2 a.m. text message later, we finally knew when we were going home. We were flying to Portugal the next day to then fly to Newark, only then to face a few more hiccups at the airport before finally getting upgraded to business class on the flight from Portugal to Newark: our saving grace.

(My advice? Wherever you go, don't fly with Swiss Air.)

Through all of these amazing experiences, the ups and downs, the unexpected, I became a much better version of myself. I became more open as a person, I learned how to express myself more, step out of my comfort zone, and it honestly made me happier than I had ever been in my life. It gave me the healing I had needed at the time, but it also made me want to be fearless with similar situations in the future. It taught me that I really could be the person I had always wanted to be, the version of myself I needed to show to people. Not only did studying abroad give me peace of mind from my past, but it made me so much more excited for my future. It made me a happier person, a more well-rounded individual, and someone who was ready to take on what might come ahead.

The travel bug bites us all once we go somewhere new and experience something great. Studying abroad literally changed my life, and me, for the better. Now, every time I travel in the future, I can not only look forward to the trip itself, but the growth and positivity that will come with it.

Going out of your comfort zone and studying abroad can do to you what it did to me. I promise you, no one ever regrets it. You come back totally different than you were before. Your entire outlook on life will change, and if you're like me, you can even give yourself the perfect opportunity to heal, to grow, and to finally become the version of yourself you've always wanted to be. Staying at home won't give you that.

My life is drastically better since having studied abroad. Go far, travel often, break the comfort zone, try new things, be brave, be bold, live life to the fullest. It's the best thing any of us can do.