Coming into study abroad this semester, I knew what to expect. After years of seeing older siblings, their peers and my friends make the journey across the pond to spend five months in a foreign country I was sure I knew what to expect. I envisioned brightly colored cities, incredible sunsets, delicious food, endless nights out and trips to other cities.
While much of this is true, and I have experienced all of it, there is something to be said about all of the things that aren’t as vividly advertised on your explore page and in your TikTok content. This isn’t to negate the incredible experience that studying abroad is, and in fact these unexpected, seemingly negative experiences often make the opportunity that much more worthwhile. Studying abroad is a time to learn about the world around you but also to learn so much more about yourself and to build confidence through the struggle of it all.
To name just a few of the things that I didn’t plan for during my semester in Madrid: missing trains and buses, losing phones and passports, a constant state of both exhaustion and dehydration, canceled Airbnbs, an intense desire for queso and of course, the yearning to be at home doing absolutely nothing for at least six weeks.
There really is always something that seems to “go wrong” on my friend and I’s various adventures around the world but honestly I don’t know if I’d want it any other way. Lugging our tragically embarrassing travel backpacks everywhere, some of my favorite memories from my semester have stemmed from the most unfortunate situations. We miss the train, but we get to meet some incredible people. We almost get hit by a car but we find ourselves hysterically laughing about it for four hours. We book a 6 a.m. flight only to find out that the trains don’t run that early, so we have to walk half of the way to the airport, but we have so much fun doing it, right? We go through hard times but are there each and every moment to comfort each other and sit through it together. All of these and so many more unlucky experiences have made my semester abroad perfect in the most imperfect way.
Being in Madrid this semester has also taught me about who I am and how to cope with everything that can go wrong in the world. I have also learned just how wrong my perception of the majority of things in my life can be. People aren’t always okay, and that’s okay. It’s okay to have everything go wrong because you will get out of it someway, somehow. I have seen just a glimpse of other people’s lives and am reminded that everyone has something go wrong sometime in their lives! So the next time that I don’t ace a test or get that job, I’ll remember that it’s okay, my life isn’t crashing down, I’ll be just fine and life will go on. I’ve learned to hold onto my friends, to hold onto each other and let them know how important they are because those are the people that will get you through everything.
For these reasons, I plan to live my life to the best it can be without caring how other people perceive me. It has been made clear in my experience that people only see the surface of myself and for that reason I can be confident in who I am. Going through these unfortunate situations has taught me that I can adapt. Being abroad has taught me that I can be who I am freely. I can be who I want and while other people might judge me, all that matters is that I am where and who I want to be.
So, yes. Studying abroad is both incredible and a little bit traumatic but it has also taught me so much. I know coming into this I expected to have the perfect semester. I expected to be absolutely enthralled by my life and captivated by everything around me at all times. I expected to be thrilled and ecstatic every moment of these five months. And while that’s not how it happened, it turned out even better.
I plan to take it all in and bask in every moment I have left of my semester abroad because I know that in about six weeks I’m going to be wishing I was standing on a platform in some random European city before sunrise, having just missed our train with all of my best friends. If you’re considering going abroad, I would encourage you to. Go in without expectations because they might not always be met but you will still have an incredible experience even if it isn’t as perfect as you’ve hoped.