By BRYNNA WILLIAMSON/Vice Editor in Chief
I’ll tell y’all up-top the “big message” for this final blog:
DO NOT be afraid or worry about this whole process. As unlikely as it seems, you’ll pick up all the information as you go. It will all start to make sense. It wasn’t as hard as I always thought it was!
I’ll split this up into categories, as always, for easy access to the info that might apply to you.
You got this!
WHAT TO LOOK FORWARD TO
Y’all, as I’ve said before, studying abroad was the most magical thing I have ever done. It was literally… amazing. There’s just not even words to describe how much fun I had. I came back a different person, to be honest. I feel more independent, more mature, more confident, and more capable.
Look forward to seeing incredible things that you didn’t think really existed – things that only, to us, exist in fairy tales.
Look forward to meeting new friends and making memories with them that are just crazy.
Look forward to learning that you can do things you were afraid of, and learning that they’re not so scary.
Look forward to being able to design your own adventures!
Look forward to looking back. Honestly, now that I’m back in the USA, I find myself running over every memory of my time abroad, however inconsequential at the time. It’s such small stuff from my time there that I cherish.
I know this might all sound a little cheesy and cliche, but the section would have been too short if I had just said “Look forward to everything. The end.”
I mean, seriously, I don’t think there’s anything about my time in Ireland that I don’t miss. Even the things that I didn’t like at the time, I miss now. If your trip was anything like mine, this will be just as fun as you imagine it, plus some.
WHAT NOT TO BE AFRAID OF
So as I said in my first blog, before this trip I have never been on an airplane, never really been out of the country, and never been away from my family for more than a week.
Now that’s a big leap of faith to take – a month-long trip across the world by myself.
However, I knew with absolute certainty that God would get me through it fine. So I gave any fear I had over to Him, and took the leap of faith.
Turns out, nothing was as scary as I had thought it would be! Prayer answered.
1. For instance, flying was actually a blast. I know a lot of people probably already have a lot of experience with planes, but in case you are like me and don’t, I’ll tell you now that it’s pretty self-explanatory. If I didn’t know what I was supposed to do, I just asked someone standing by or one of the TSA workers, and they were super nice and instructed me. I don’t think I ran into anyone who was unfriendly or unwilling to help. Don’t worry about that.
2. As far as the plane turbulence or whatever, you’ve all heard the statistic that you’re more likely to die in a car crash than in a plane crash. Don’t stress it. Seriously. There’s no point.
My mom told me something that helped me a lot with the idea of plane turbulence – “It’s basically the plane going over a pothole,” she said. If you just think of it like that, then it’s really not so scary. Yeah, cars bump and shake a bit when they go over a pothole, too, but that doesn’t mean it needs to be terrifying.
3. Don’t be afraid of the people you’ll meet. Social anxiety really wasn’t a thing that I saw. We were all in the same exact scenario – everyone there that was in the program with me was American, pretty much, so we even had that in common – and so we bonded just fine. On the rare occasion that one of us was tired or needed to recharge our social batteries, it was fine to do so – no one complained.
Some programs may be more strict than ours, but my program told us that “we’re all adults” and can take care of ourselves. That means leeway to make room for self-care 🙂
4. Don’t be afraid to take breaks. Yes, like I said, we weren’t stressed out about each other – I didn’t know anyone who didn’t make a friend by the end of the time – but a totally new environment plus continual exploration can be really exhausting. I’m a “see it all, explore it all” kind of person, but after a week or two I needed to just stay in and rest. There’s nothing wrong with that! Know your mental/physical boundaries and know that it’s ok to just do nothing for a little while.
5. Don’t be afraid to ask for help. So there was this one day where my friend and I decided to go to a semi-local theme park, so we rode the bus for an hour or two to get there. Late that evening, however, it started pouring rain, and the bus was late, and we got off on the wrong stop, and dark was coming on, etc. We didn’t know what to do, but after we prayed about it, we ended up calling the program director and she gave us a ride back to the dorm! She told us that “that’s her job,” so she wasn’t worried about doing it for us. Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you need it!
Tips on things to do
I highly, highly recommend trying to keep some semblance of a normal routine. For me, that meant things like taking a shower at the same time of day as I would back home, cooking foods that I would eat back home, finding a church to attend on Sunday, etc. You should make lots of room to try new things, but I saw the students who were being 100% different ready to go home faster than I was.
Don’t be crazy. Make your parents and God proud. Just… don’t. We’re all adults here. Act like it, please?
Journal. I know this sounds horrible and boring – I know because, personally, I cannot stand journaling – but it is so… so… so worth it. I can’t stand journaling because I feel like it takes so much time and is really cheesy, but honestly now that I’m back, my travel journal is such a precious commodity to me. It is amazing to see my thoughts and opinions from moments abroad, because it’s like jumping back into that moment through a portal. I am very glad that I did.
Finally, take lots of pictures. Your pictures not only will make you smile later on, but these photos will be something that you show your kids someday. These photos are like little memories wrapped up in a kilobyte of data. I love my pictures of Ireland. They make me happy, and they make those around me happy to see.
Long story short? This will be ok. Do your research. Don’t be afraid of this. Take a breath and be excited. You’ve got the adventure of a lifetime in front of you. 🙂
