What should I be doing right now? Practicing my French presentation that I have in a couple of hours. What am I doing instead? Writing this post and reminiscing about all the amazing things studying abroad has brought me.
My program is making a video about things in people’s lives that wouldn’t exist in our lives if we hadn’t studied abroad. It inspired me to write this post about everything I’ve been able to do since coming here and all the amazing people I’ve met.
To start off, if I hadn’t decided to study abroad I wouldn’t have forced myself out of my comfort zone and immersed myself into a new culture. I wouldn’t have my host family who teaches me about French culture through our nightly family dinners. I wouldn’t have my French classes that teach me how to improve my French so that I can communicate better. I wouldn’t have met Roxana and Donjetah, Polish girls also studying at Nantes University. And, I wouldn’t have met all of my friends at IES, who I’ve already decided will be at my wedding.
Without study abroad, I wouldn’t have the opportunity to travel to new cities and countries almost every weekend. I wouldn’t have been able to spend 4 days in Edinburgh. I wouldn’t have met Michael, a guy from New Zealand who also happens to be studying abroad in France (in a different city, but what are the odds?), at my hostel in Edinburgh. I wouldn’t have met Dani, a substitute teacher in Canada, during a bar crawl in Edinburgh. I wouldn’t have been able to go to London and see the crown jewels, which I wasn’t able to take pictures of. (Which would be a crime because they were SO beautiful.) Without study abroad I wouldn’t be able to travel to cities in France like: Ile-au-Moins, Vannes, Guérande, Clisson, Saint-Malo, Mont-Saint-Michel, Caen, Paris, or Lyon.
Without study abroad, I wouldn’t have been able to go to the opera, eat at a Michelin-star restaurant, or go to a wine-tasting class. I wouldn’t be able to go from cooking croque monsieurs with my gastronomy class to ice skating with French students on a random Wednesday. I wouldn’t have the French high school students at my internship who always keep me on my toes. I wouldn’t be able to try new foods or learn about the city of Nantes. I wouldn’t have friends to drink sangrias with while sitting at a musician festival.
At the end of the day, without studying abroad, I wouldn’t have the experiences and friends that I do not have. While I do sometimes miss being at home and the comforts that come with it, I wouldn’t change any of it for the world. Now while studying abroad isn’t always sunshine and rainbows (quite literally because it ALWAYS rains in Nantes) there is always a bright side and I have so much to be grateful for. There is so much more joy and happiness in my life that wouldn’t exist in my life if I hadn’t studied abroad.
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