You know that moment during the Fourth of July fireworks, just before the grand finale where they light every last firework they have, the sky is aglow with colors and your ears seem like they’ll never hear normally again? Now is that moment. Right now, my fellow abroaders. Because whether you have a month, or three weeks or five weeks, we’ve entered into this moment: this final home stretch. It’s time to start preparing to light every last firework for your grand finale of studying abroad. So here’s what I want you to do. Grab your friends and make a list. Make a list of everything you want to do before you leave–no limitations on this first list. Once you’ve made your ideal list, look back at it and see how realistic your “dream” goals are. You want to do it; GO DO IT. You’ve only got until the last firework lights up the sky and then you’ll be back in the good ol’ US of A. So, make a list, a bucket list if you will, of things you want to do before you leave the country you are in. And then, DO THEM. Check off every item you can, because you won’t get this time back. Because when it’s all over, do you want your grand finale to be the very best or only mediocre?
If my cheesy firework display metaphor can’t inspire you, allow these quotes to try:
“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”–St. Augustine
“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”–Mark Twain
“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.”–Eleanor Roosevelt