Grow Through What You Go Through: Abroad Edition

When I was preparing myself for three and a half months in Italy, I was nervous without a concrete reason. There was nothing I could point to in my mind that scared me except for the change in routine and missing my friends and family who would not be there with me. I had always heard going abroad for a semester is a life-changing experience and is so much fun, but this was the extent of my mental prep.

After arriving home from my time in Europe, I realized that no one really talks about the reality of living and studying abroad. I had always heard about fun trips to Greece and unbelievable restaurants, but these are surface-level aspects of this truly transformative, yet strenuous, experience.

The first prominent challenge I experienced abroad was homesickness. When I first came to Elon, I also experienced this longing for home—yet abroad, it was very different. There is no way to go home for a weekend and take a break. Once you’re there, you’re there.

I also struggled with the fact that Italy is six hours ahead of the United States (East Coast time). This hindered my ability to communicate with family and friends—and if I ever needed help from my mom, this was certainly a roadblock. One of my roommates and I had a very difficult time the first several weeks of abroad because we felt stranded, longing a bit for home even though we were in the middle of one of the most beautiful cities in the world.

This was made even more difficult by the lack of familiarity around us. People often talk about culture shock when traveling to countries in Asia or Africa, how very different lifestyles are there. I did not expect the culture shock I experienced in Italy, and I wish I had been more prepared.

There were not normal grocery stores in Florence; they did not carry normal American food and were often small with one or two rooms. As privileged and pathetic as this sounds, I missed the simple familiarity of a Starbucks coffee. Or some sushi. Or anything outside the realm of pasta, pizza, and paninis.

The lack of routine while abroad also caused me to often feel on edge. As a person who needs a routine, traveling every weekend while going to class and also exploring Florence during the week meant minimal stability.  

The last complication was physical challenges. First, getting around other countries was more challenging than I had anticipated. When I was in Paris, I had booked my flight out of a Paris airport that was actually a two-hour drive outside of the city. I realized this the morning of my flight, and an expensive Uber ride and sprint to my gate later, I made my flight by a mere sixty seconds. This was one of my first weekend trips, and slowly but surely, I began to understand public transportation and how to get around.

In Munich, Germany, I spent an hour and a half alone one evening trying to take a tram back to my hotel with no success. Eventually, I gave up and called an Uber… to the wrong hotel. Two days later, my friends and I got kicked off our flight home from Munich and spent seven hours in the airport fighting to get back to Florence.

For each flight out of Florence, we trekked nearly a mile, suitcases in tow, to a tram that would take us to the airport. Sometimes this was at five in the morning. Sometimes, this was in the pouring rain. And one time, it was in both. These were frustrating hurdles, especially when you consider being in a different country with a foreign language and no real adult figure helping you out along the way. However, these experiences led to one of the largest periods of growth I have encountered in my life.

While I did just spend a little while voicing my grievances about abroad before saying it was life-changing, my hope is that students planning to go abroad make more well-informed decisions, which means knowing what can sometimes be a harsh reality.

Through each one of these obstacles, I gained so much self-knowledge and cultural exposure. Before leaving for my semester of European travel and experiences, I struggled to manage anything alone. I hated running errands by myself and even doing homework alone, let alone going to any larger events.

But during my first week in Florence, I began going on walks and exploring by myself—and to my surprise, I loved it. I began to get comfortable spending significant chunks of time alone and learning about myself. I started to trust my sense of direction and my ability to navigate places and situations. I had never imagined in my life that I would enjoy exploring the world by myself, and even now, I crave the alone time that I once used to dread.

This sense of independence is one of my favorite things about myself now, and it has certainly affected my life at school since coming back. I now feel content to make my own choices and not base my schedule or activities on the people around me. I also learned to push myself through situations that I simply don’t want to endure.

Walking thirty minutes to the airport shuttle at five in the morning in the pouring rain with one of my friends was the epitome of what I hated abroad. However, it led to one of the best weekends of my life. These experiences taught me that most of the time, some bad comes along with the good, and we must choose to push through to reap the full reward. 

Now that I am back, living my daily routine, I deeply miss my time in Florence and in the eight other countries I traveled to during those magical, transformative months. I fully endorse the commitment Elon has to study abroad because the lessons I learned in that time could not have been learned any other way. I miss the allure of traveling to a new city or country every weekend and gaining a deeper understanding of the world around me.