While I was still in high school, I remember telling myself that studying abroad was something that I absolutely had to do. At that point, I didn’t know what I wanted to major in or even what school I wanted to go to, let alone where I wanted to study abroad. However, I knew that I definitely wanted to travel somewhere new and that studying abroad would be the perfect opportunity for me to do so.
As I roamed around through freshman year, I attended several study abroad panels, met with advisors and looked up possible programs I wanted to go on. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Office of International Programs website became my most searched site of 2015-2016. I still wasn’t sure what I wanted to major in and at this point so I was running out of time. I had been taking Arabic which accounted for two classes per semester, so I didn’t have quite as much room to figure out what I wanted to do. Luckily, I ended up loving Arabic so much that I majored in Islamic Civilizations and Societies and later on double majoring in Political Science.
While I loved taking Arabic, I found myself lost as to where I could study abroad. My school only offered a couple of programs in the Middle East which did not necessarily fit my interests or academic needs. The only programs that I was interested in were external programs that would not be covered by my financial aid, which was one of the biggest deciding factors in where I would be going.
At this point, I was so discouraged from studying abroad that I didn’t think that I wanted to do it at all. I began to think about all of the typical things that would hold someone back from studying abroad. Can I even afford it? Won’t I get FOMO from being away from school and my friends for so long? Aren’t I going to miss my parents? Can I even fit it into my schedule? I went back and forth on whether I wanted to study abroad or not. By the summer of my freshman year, I was almost certain that I didn’t want to go abroad. However, during that summer, I had a roommate on campus who was a rising junior and had similar uncertainties as well. However, she was on the bus with someone one day and this person told her it was something she “had to do”. She told me that in that moment, she knew that she wanted to study abroad. Similarly, in that moment, I knew that I wanted to study abroad and that I wanted to go for a full year.
As sophomore year rolled around, study abroad decisions and deadlines became more serious and I had to pick somewhere to go. This was something I really struggled with because frankly, I wanted to go everywhere. I tried to look for Universities where I would still be able to take Arabic (surprisingly there were a lot), but I also tried to look for places that I genuinely had an interest in going to. I spoke with several advisors and decided on two places, Spain and Brazil.
While these two places may seem absolutely random, I have a logic behind each of them. The University in Spain has an Arabic language program and I figured that while I was there, I would be able to continue my Arabic studies while simultaneously improve my Spanish. While Brazil does not have an Arabic language program, I thought that it would be an interesting location to study political science and it is somewhere that I have always wanted to go. One of my intentions for studying abroad was to be somewhere where a different language was spoken and because I grew up speaking Spanish, I knew that I would not have this experience in Spain. I wanted to be surrounded by a language completely foreign to me and try to learn it on the spot which I expect to be difficult, but also a unique learning experience.
That being said, I have not given up on studying abroad in the Middle East. I met with my study abroad advisor several times and applied for a couple of scholarships to study abroad in the Middle East. I was fortunate enough to receive one scholarship that is allowing me to study Arabic this summer in Oman. If I were to receive the other scholarship, I would most likely switch my Brazil program with Jordan, if possible. If not however, I would continue to apply for scholarship programs to study abroad in the Middle East over the summer of 2018. Whether I end up in Brazil or Jordan my spring semester of 2018, I know I will be happy learning about new cultures, new languages and meeting new people.
Studying abroad is such a personal decision that I knew that only I could really decide whether I wanted to do it or not. For me, I am not the most involved person on campus. I’m not on a dance team or an a capella group and I don’t hold an important position for a club. In that case, I just figured why not? I decided that I would get more FOMO from not studying abroad than I would while I was in a different country. I know what life is like at BC is like, but I don’t know what it would be like to live in Spain or Brazil or Jordan for a few months and I feel like I would just end up thinking about what I am missing out on and what I could be doing. Because I can’t work over the summer, I picked up some more hours at the office I work at to save up some money and am also currently applying for several study abroad scholarships to try to partially fund my year away.
While the process has been quite a rough journey, I am staying optimistic about my junior year. In the back of my head, I know that finances may get in the way of me going abroad for a full year, but if it were to come down to it, I know that I would still have a great time here at school. In any case, I am just hoping for the best and hope to fill up a couple of more pages of my passport.
Sources: All images from google.com