Post-study abroad depression is real and it is worse then I thought. (I don’t know if post-study abroad depression is a clinical term used by doctors, but people who have studied abroad know it is real!) Coming back to school after studying abroad is exciting. Catching up with all of your friends that you have not seen in four months. Telling them about your adventures and using the phrase “it was the greatest experience of my life” too many times to count. However, the excitement has passed and now you have to get back to the real world. Realizing that you are not going back to Europe is the saddest part of all. Here are four things that happen after you have studied abroad:
1. Little things remind you of your time abroad.
When a certain song comes on the radio and it reminds you of your time abroad, you may begin to laugh, call your friend to reminisce or even cry. For me when the song “Riptide” by Vance Joy comes on the radio, I remember the night I spent six hours in the bar with my roommate in Dublin. The bartender hopped on the guitar with the live band, dedicated “Riptide” to my roommate and I and serenated us. I also remember dancing to “YMCA” at Lucerna Dance Club on Friday night in Prague with a bunch of foreign people from around the world. I swear, nothing is more memorable than a bachelor party from Italy in matching shirts doing the “YMCA.” Songs are so powerful and are the biggest trigger in remembering certain events.
2. The feeling that you talk about studying abroad too much.
When you come back from studying abroad your friends are so excited to hear about your travels. Hearing the phrase “welcome back” is actually one of the greatest feelings because every person studying abroad secretly has this fear that they will be forgotten. However, slowly the questions get asked less and less and it will soon be forgotten that you even studied abroad. All you want to do is talk about it and “conveniently” everything that you do now somehow relates to an experience abroad, but you bite your tongue and don’t mention it because you don’t want to be the person who “only” talks about studying abroad.
3. Attempting not to be the” TBT” girl or “FBF” person on Instagram every week.
Before leaving for studying abroad you remember seeing everyone pictures of studying abroad and even though they studied abroad a year ago, they were still posting pictures. You said you would never be that person that tries to relive his or her study abroad experience through Instagram. Now that you are back in America you can see why they continue to post their pictures. No picture can ever live up to a photo of hiking in the Swiss Alps or biking through Amsterdam. A picture of my dinner plate at IHOP does not feel worth to post. So instead you wait until Thursday and post a “throw back” picture of your time abroad and it’s okay because your fellow study-abroad followers feel your pain and are the first to throw you a like!
4. Coming to terms that your study abroad experience is over
The worst and best part about post-study abroad depression, is that your study abroad experience is over. However, that is also the best part because you now have all these memories of your time abroad, new friends that you can call and reminisce with and a greater confidence that you can do anything you want because you conquered a semester abroad!
So even though you miss your study abroad experience, there is always a way to turn it into a positive. If you can take everything that you learned and apply it to your life, there is nothing that you can’t do! So go on my fellow study-abroader: conquer the world!
Photos courtesy of Erin Bilello