This past summer I had the amazing opportunity to live in Lithuania and do an internship at the capital city’s municipality. Lithuania is my home nation, a small country of three million people by the Baltic Sea. While I typically go back to visit family for a couple short weeks every summer, this time I was living on my own with fellow interns. I came back to TCNJ feeling like a new woman with gained knowledge from life in the Old World. Here is what I learned:
1. Dress to Impress
Europeans don’t mess around with this idea. Anywhere you go, whether it be the grocery store or a coffee shop, you cannot spot sweatpants, flip flops, or sweatshirts. Europeans think of their outfit choices also as respect for the other people they are meeting or are in public with. Ladies wont be wearing ball gowns every day, but they make sure to wear clean and stylish pants, a blouse, a jacket, accessories in good taste, and shoes which are often heels. Also, everyone’s favorite color is black. Women make sure to have their hair done everyday, perfect nails (and I mean a tiny chip of nail polish is insanely taboo), natural makeup, and correct posture. Both men and women of all ages are always keeping up with the latest styles and they don’t shy away from trying new fashion pieces or hairstyles!
Oscar Wilde said it best, “You can never be overdressed or overeducated,” which leads to my next point:
2. Be an informed person
Whenever I would start a conversation with a student, my jaw would drop at how informed and educated she was. Most people knew more about American politics than I did, which was pretty embarrassing! Education in Europe is highly valued. Students could be studying a very specific subject in their Universities, such as Hotel Management, and yet still understand (and remember) chemistry, economics, history, calculus, and art. There is a certain expectation or responsibility people our age feel to keep up with current events, technological inventions, and trends. It is truly inspirational.
3. Life is too short for bad coffee
I’ll admit, I used to think Starbucks coffee was pretty amazing, until I started drinking coffee in Europe. The difference is ridiculous! First of all, your coffee will be served in a beautiful white coffee cup with a little plate underneath it and lattes are typically brought out in a tall glass cup with a long spoon. Second, cappuccinos will always have a hint of art in the foam, so basically since you are what you eat, you become art yourself after your cap’. All I have to say is that coffee is taken SERIOUSLY.
4. Travel your heart out
While this lesson is easier to turn into reality for Europeans since a different country can be just a two-hour drive away, students in the U.S. can travel to a new state or city (and you wont even have to worry about language barriers)! Europe encouraged me to pursue my wanderlust quality rather than just say, “I want to travel the world,” and never actually do it. There is so much out there in this world, it’s cranium-exploding! One of my favorite quotes is, “Traveling – it leaves you speechless, then turns you into a storyteller” by Ibn Battuta. Traveling humbles you and allows you to learn more about yourself and the person you want to become. It makes you more tolerant and unexplainably opens up your eyes. It forces you to step out of your comfort zone, adapt to a certain, new local way of life, and have a blast doing it.
5. Stop asking for permission
This is a toughie, but once you chase it you will understand how liberating it is. This was the most important lesson Europe taught me. I’m guilty of running by most of my bigger plans to my father. But then one day my grandfather asked me why I constantly ask him for permission to do something, even if it doesn’t require his presence. I couldn’t come up with an answer. Why do I need permission to travel somewhere? Isn’t it time I make my own choices and feel good about them? Once I took my grandfather’s advice, surprisingly my father respected and supported me even more! I notice this trend among my fellow American students often. They answer to plans with, “Let me just ask my parents before I say yes.” People our age in Europe mature quicker and become independent as soon as they start college, and it is not frowned upon to make your own choices objectively from a young-adult age. You are the only person you can control, so take on the world and all it has to offer you with confidence. You wont be sorry!