To my pre-departure self, the number one thing I want you to know is not to stress too much when traveling abroad. So many things change and continue to change that whatever you had planned is most likely not going to happen. Learn to go with the flow. Now this does NOT mean you take a back seat and do nothing. Still, put an active foot forward in making things happen. Just do not stress when things do not go 100 percent according to plan. Another thing that kinda goes along with this is, to get comfortable doing things with people you are not used to or even by yourself. As someone who likes to do things with friends I already know, it was very hard to get everyone together and I learned to go even though I didn’t know anyone there. I am also the type of person who doesn’t like to be alone and when abroad everyone has their own crazy schedules and sometimes yours is alone.
I would say I have grown the most in my ability to adapt to new things. This can apply to living in new areas, understanding new cultures, or being around new people who are different than your normal group. I feel now, as I get closer to ending my trip, I have more confidence to go to new places. I have more confidence to move somewhere new if a job takes me there. I have more confidence to know that if the plan doesn’t go necessarily to plan, it will still work out as long as you put in your best effort.
What I know now that I wish I had known at the beginning of the program is how to live with roommates who have different views than you. All of my roommates now get along and enjoy time with each other but it all took us some time to figure each other out how to get along. I wish I had known how to get along from the start so my roommates and I didn’t have to go through such a learning curve with each other.
What surprised me most about my global experience is simply how much the world is out there. While I knew there was a lot more and I knew I was going to experience more, it still was such a shock to feel this new world for myself. No amount of reading or stories can make you understand how big the world is until you see it for yourself.
This is a blurry picture of my friend singing karaoke in Bali. It is blurry because I only got one picture because I wanted to live in the moment and not have my phone out.
This is a picture of me at the Targona Zoo where I stayed overnight and woke up the next morning to feed the Giraffes .
