I never thought that I would be the person to say that a study abroad “changed my life”. I always thought that was something people just said but did not actually mean it – until I did a film program from my college in Los Angeles. Now, I realize that this is not actually a study abroad from the United States, but it is quite far away from New Hampshire where I go to college. (Also, I am originally from Germany, so I guess my entire college experience is a study abroad? But defining that is a completely different story.)
When I was deciding which study abroad to do, I did not know what I wanted, but I knew what I did not want: I did not want to study in Europe or the US, because I already knew those places quite well. I wanted to go to a country I had never been to before.
Well, fast forward a couple of months and I ended up applying to two programs: The Film domestic study program in Los Angeles and the French Foreign Study Program in Paris – obviously one of these was in Europe and the other in the US. It was the exact opposite of what I originally thought I wanted to apply for, but somehow I felt drawn to these programs and ended up getting accepted.
The L.A. program had a little twist to it: We would be taking two classes and our third class would be an internship. When it came to applying for internships, I was once again lost. I had always been interested in film but was not sure that I actually wanted to work in the film and media business. At some point, our professor sent us an email about a position that had opened up in a company called Violet Grey. It was a high-end luxury beauty company and I was intrigued. I applied, had a phone interview and ended up getting formal invite to join the team during my stay in L.A. I would be a “Video Intern”.
That internship ended up having a bigger impact on my life than I ever thought it would have. I had such an incredible time in the city of angels at working at that company that I realized that is what I want to go into after graduating college.
Also, I met many amazing people on this program and am still close friends with a few of them, which I could not be happier about.
It was quite a long way to get there because I did not even want to apply to this program and then almost did not apply to this internship, but somehow, I still ended up there. Sometimes, life takes funny twists and turns, and you won’t see certain things coming. What I learned from this experience? Be open, be adventurous and take the opportunities you get!