If you’re a college student considering a travel
abroad program, I strongly encourage you to sign up for it.
I can tell you from personal experience that
traveling abroad—especially during your college years—can be one of the most
rewarding experiences you’ll ever have. During my tenure as an undergraduate I
traveled to several countries in Western Europe, an amazingly eye-opening time
that helped make me the person I am today. I learned to appreciate different
cultures and peoples, I learned a heck of a lot about myself, and I made some
of the best friends of my life.
And to think that such a transformative moment
in my youth almost never happened.
You see, I wasn’t always gung-ho about traveling
abroad. No, at first I was actually quite comfortable in the sheltered
environment at my college. I had developed fast friendships with my peers and
couldn’t imagine traveling anywhere else when I could spend my time taking
classes at school, learning as much as I could from my writing professors. Whenever professors or fellow students
brought up the topic of traveling abroad, I figured it was a prospect only
meant for privileged rich kids or free spirited students with no direction in
life. It didn’t seem like something that was possible or desirable for someone
like me, a young woman from a middle class family with ambitions of being a
novelist.
What’s more, I harbored serious reservations
about the potential safety hazards that could befall someone traveling abroad.
I worried about all sorts of outrageous worst case scenarios: losing my
passport in the middle of a country where no one spoke English; being kidnapped
for ransom money; running out of my own money before the trip had ended;
regretting my destination as soon as I arrived there. No outlandish traumatic
event was too crazy to consider if I could dream it up—I had made the prospect
of traveling so scary that I didn’t even bother thinking about it.
Long story short, I was pretty ignorant and
unnecessarily paranoid about the subject.
That all changed when I befriended a classmate
in my junior year who had just come back from a semester long trip in Europe.
Her rich and unbelievable stories about traveling to such destinations as
Milan, Frankfurt, and Paris immediately dispelled the reservations I had about
traveling. My friend explained to me how she, like me, had been immensely
anxious about the prospect of traveling. She wondered what would go wrong and
worried that she might be put in an uncomfortable situation in a foreign
country. But once she actually got to her destination, once she actually set
foot on solid ground in the UK, in France, in Germany,
and in Italy, everything changed.
The very next day after talking with my friend
about her experiences I signed myself up for a study abroad program affiliated
with my college’s English department. That summer I traveled all across Western
Europe, a three month-long experience that would change my life forever. All
the inhibitions and baseless fears I harbored were lessened with each passing
day in a foreign country. What’s more, it made me a better person.
I hope that you give yourself the chance to have
the same experience.
About the author. With knowledge of the best background check companies and
tactics, Jane Smith provides vital information and tips throughout her blogs
and site www.backgroundcheck.org.
Email her your thoughts or concerns at janesmith161@gmail.com
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