Stage One: Denial. There’s no way the trip is already over, right!?
Whether a study abroad trip lasts for a whole school year, a semester or for a number of weeks — it is an experience bound to change the life of any collegiette forever. It can be said for most students that these unforgettable experiences go by quicker than time has ever gone. When the last night hits, it’s unfathomable that the best experience of your life is over, just like that.
You could be lying in your dorm room bed at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, like I was, with eyebrows furrowed, trying to comprehend how in the world five weeks abroad had already passed by.
All of your best memories will consume you in your denial that it isn’t over on your last night.
The constant laughs on Ireland cliffs and castles, the hilarious disaster of configuring public transportation in London, the mischief in Wales: I couldn’t stop my mind from running these memories through my head that last evening.
Stage Two: Gradual acceptance that it is over.
It’s hard to distinguish one particular moment where it is completely and fully understood that your study abroad trip is over. You’re en route to the airport in a cab full of luggage, yet it still hasn’t sunk in. You’re on a plane, set to fly to your first layover. Nope, still not real yet.
“What do you mean, I’m going back to the United States? Yeah, good joke, pal. I’ll see ya at the pub tonight — a pint of Guinness on you for that bad joke.”
You’re at the airport, finally back home, and seeing your family by the luggage pick up gives you confirmation that you are, in fact, back home. Still, it doesn’t feel real yet. The pensive, bizarre car ride home (this time on the right side of the road) with your family or friends will still be a hard circumstance to comprehend.
You might toss and turn for a few nights or wake up at weird times because of your sleep adjustment period. You’ll forget what it’s like to not be constantly surrounded by your study abroad friends or maybe what it’s like not to share a room anymore. You’ll forget what it’s like to use U.S. dollars at first and won’t have to convert currency exchanges in your head anymore.
You’ll miss some of those aspects, but others you will be okay with.
For the following days or weeks, each day will a slow, gradual transition back into your normal life.
Stage Three: Accepting the benefits of being home.
Missing your study abroad is a sentiment you’re bound to feel for a long period of time. However, accepting the parts of home that weren’t available abroad is a good method for curing the post-study abroad blues.
I know that as soon as I returned home, the nearest Taco Bell or Tim Horton’s was my first planned food destination. The foods from home that you craved so heavily while abroad will taste so much sweeter after landing on U.S. soil. Are there words to describe the spiritual experience of eating a Tim Horton’s donut once I landed home? Hardly.
It will make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside to be with your family and friends from home again. Spending time with your partner or others who are important to you will feel even more special than before.
After all, it isn’t that being home is bad; it’s just that studying abroad was so wonderful that it’s difficult to adjust to reality afterwards.
Stage Four: Becoming that annoying “post study abroad” student.
Ah, yes, we are all familiar with the, “Wait, did you study abroad?” sarcastic jokes, and we can’t even be mad about it. Truthfully, the majority of students who studied abroad do want to share their most blissful, life-changing memories of their trip through conversation with people they care about.
Unfortunately, this can potentially alienate friends who are either envious or just irritated about the topic constantly being discussed.
It can be hard to fully open up to those at home about your trip. You don’t want to seem braggy or overzealous. You don’t know if the questions that follow when you’re home are polite inquiries or genuine interest in your time, so how in depth should your answer be?
You want to connect with people over your experience and talk about it, but only if their interest is genuine, so you’re not being bothersome. It’s a tricky line to walk along, and you’ll find yourself suppressing some conversation about your trip, in an attempt to avoid furthering your role as that obnoxious post-study abroad student.
Stage Five: Straight up NOSTALGIA.
Now that you’ve become settled into life, maybe a new semester at school is starting or your summer is beginning. You’ve become accustomed to your reality, and it feels normal to be home now — but that’s what makes you even more nostalgic.
Studying abroad seems long ago now, like it was almost in your imagination!
Since months or weeks have passed by now, you don’t feel like your trip was yesterday any longer. Once you’re engulfed in homework or work again, it is far too easy to fall into the daze of study abroad nostalgia.
You’ll find yourself sifting through the pictures and videos from your time abroad, immersing yourself into your favorite experiences. This dreamy state of intense longing for the most magical experiences of your life will come and go when life becomes stressful or worrisome again.
You’ll make sure to keep your friendships flowing with your study abroad friends, and you will be able to reminisce about your best and worst times, gushing about how much you miss it, without fear of being misunderstood. They get it.
Stage Six: Planning for the future, while also living in the now.
Longing to travel again is a natural desire after returning from an incredible time abroad. Now, settled back into reality, you can use all of the skills, lessons, and connections made on your trip in your academic and personal life. Now, you have the opportunity to apply the skills learned, like cultural communication, global understanding, problem solving and more, into work or school.
Among applying the various benefits of study abroad to your home life, you’ll probably be engulfed in imagining, or actually planning, your return back.
Whether it be next summer, or ten years from now, you know you strongly desire to go abroad once again. Maybe you will, maybe you won’t. However, it’s clear that planning to go back abroad will be a lingering plan for many years to follow.
Life will go on as it did before, but your time until your potential return will be infinitely impacted by the whirlwind of blissful and challenging experiences of your study abroad trip.