This will change your life, I promise you. Unlike all those seminars where people sit and tell you to change the way you think and then your life will be so much better, this is something you can do. How do you change the way you think consciously? I have no idea, it’s complicated and no one quite has a grasp on it yet, but one thing we all understand is how to physically do something.
So go abroad. Spend a semester in a different country with different values and you will be changing the way you think without any effort.
The beauty of doing this is that you aren’t even aware that the way you do things is changing. While you’re there, you are immersed in a different culture and are forced to do things differently than you normally would at home. Even without knowing, you are comparing these two cultures, but that is not a bad thing. By experiencing things differently you find out what you like! Do you like leisurely strolling or do you feel at home with a brisk New York trot? Do you need to take more breathers or is being busy your calling?
You will meet people that are both entirely different from you while having a mindset that you’ve been looking for your entire life. You will be forever bonded with people that you struggled with to find the right words in French to order a glass of wine and with whom you almost missed your midnight bus to Switzerland (which you took because it was only 60 euro, score!). However different you are on the outside, all of the people you meet will be brave. It takes courage to go abroad, courage you might not have known you have.
Living in another country is unlike anything you’ve known. You will experience things you could only dream of in your dorm room (i.e. a GELATO FESTIVAL). You’ll taste food that will make your mouth water months after you’ve come home just thinking about it . You will think quicker than you did before, if only because you had to translate everything in your head for four months. You might even discover a new passion that changes the shape of your life like I did. There are so many ways that your life will change and all by this one decision…