At this point, the very title of this article sounds rather cliche; it’s a story you’ve heard hundreds of times before. You know… young girl travels for the first time and it changes her life blah blah blah. I hate to say it, but it’s true true true.
From the moment my year abroad began, I gained a sense of independence I have never experienced before. It was quite an extreme form of independence, hopping on board an 11 hour flight with two suitcases to the other side of the world where I knew no one, but there was something beyond exhilarating about it. It was a chance to have a totally fresh start, and there is nothing more freeing than that. Whilst that comes with some qualms, for example not being able to nip home if something went wrong or you know, living somewhere I’ve never been before, I was pushed into a new realm of rediscovering myself in a new place. And really, when you leave everything you have ever known and loved behind, you’re forced to look inside yourself and try to figure out who you are. It all sounds rather daunting, and in a way, it was. Being so far away from home, meeting so many new people who don’t understand anything about home, the list goes on and on. But the payoff is, to put it lightly, huge. All the challenges that came with living abroad, from feeling lonely to the culture shock, became a part of my discovery. I gained a newfound self of confidence and even pride in myself for doing something that would push me to grow. It’s really a feeling you cannot replicate, and a high I’ve been chasing since coming back home.
It’s funny isn’t it, how living in a different country with a different culture helps you find yourself, but sometimes it’s exactly what you need. Doing a year abroad in Oregon, an oasis of pine trees and fog covered mountains, it was truly like nothing I’ve seen before. Being able to go to the lake in the evening after school to late night drives to Walmart, every activity had an element of whimsy to it.
Another way in which studying abroad changed my life was through the travel opportunities that came my way throughout the year. Even speaking with other people who have studied abroad, it’s a general consensus that when you’re away random chances for travel bloom right in-front of you. One of the times this happened to me on my year abroad was a trip to San Francisco, in which one of my closest friends invited me to stay with her family friends there. It has proven to be a transformative trip for me, as I am still in contact with the people I met over there and hold them very dear to my heart. Through meeting them over Thanksgiving, we became a little family, with us meeting up several times throughout the rest of the year. It’s something I never expected to happen and something I am eternally lucky to have experienced. Through meeting so many new people with such different ways of life to what I have seen at home, I feel as though I can move into my own future with a different mindset about what my life could be.
Now if all of this is not enough to convince you (and I do think there are some good reasons if I say so myself), I thought I would just clear up a few worries I had before leaving for my year abroad. One of the main concerns
for me was the financial side of studying abroad, which is totally understandable as there is not that much information about it online. But in my experience, I found that Student Finance offer larger loans (depending on how expensive your chosen country is) and even offer grants to lower-income students, which massively helped me out. You can also get a job whilst away, which I managed to do through making content for the university. So, what I’m trying to say is that it is definitely achievable to study abroad despite your financial situation. Another point that puts people off is the fear of being alone in final year. I totally get it because what’s Nottingham without your community? But one thing that has really surprised me is how many people have stayed in Nottingham for an extra
year. Whether its for a masters, escaping the jaws of living at home again, or that they ended up doing a year away as well, there are still plenty of people knocking about. While it is strange, don’t get me wrong, the experiences I gained through studying abroad have made those sacrifices worth it.
So, if you take anything away from this article, I hope its that I had a ball on my year abroad and if you get the chance to, take the opportunity with both hands and go for it.