Why study abroad?

Hello everyone! Looking back at previous post, I touched on the big question of “why study abroad?”, but never went beyond the basic answers. After being over in England for 6 months, I feel it is time to dive into this question.

When you study abroad, there is no such thing as comfort zone. It does not exist. Do not expect to have a comfort zone you can step back into when things get a little scary. When in a different country, there are many things that are different and you will not realize how much it will affect you. One or two different things won’t really bother you, but when all the small and few big differences add up, it is hard. I am not saying this to scare you away from studying abroad, but rather to encourage it. Why? Because you learn to adapt. That is an important skill to have and a skill that can be used for the rest of your life. Life is unpredictable (no matter how much you think you can control it) and it is important to learn how to adapt in a healthy way and not jump back into that safe bubble of a comfort zone. After these six months, I am more acceptable to change and would not be fearful of unknown situations.

Just like college, you create connections with other people. However, these connections are international. You’d be surprised on how many different nationalities I have learned about through meeting new people. People have different perspectives and it all depends on their background. You may not agree with everything people say, but it adds to your knowledge bank of the different viewpoints. It widens the narrow tunnel of our minds because sometimes we subconsciously make friends with people who have similar viewpoints. With meeting new people outside your town, family, or old friends, new and fresh perspectives come in. An example of this is a speaker who came to give a lecture. He was a muslim man who thinks it is a big sin to be homosexual. I personally don’t agree with it, but he was raised in Pakistan with a Islamic upbringing. I do not agree with him and it made me slightly uncomfortable, but I learned to be respectful of people’s opinions. It adds perspective and a better understanding of where people’s viewpoints comes from.

You gain independence. For me, this was an important skill to learn. When you are in an unknown place, you learn to utilize your resources. You start to figure out things for yourself. During my free travel time, I was terrified to be traveling for a month, but I found little tricks here and there to make the travel from place to place easier. I navigated the public transportation on my own and would feel confident in doing that in any city now. Studying abroad bring independence in whether you want it to or not. I had to learn to budget my money, organize, plan, and be aware. It was definitely exhausting at first, but you get use to doing all of those things. Those skills will come in handy later in the future.

And the most obvious reason to study abroad is because it is FUN. Do it when you are young, because you have the energy to. When life gets busy, and you start working or start a family, there isn’t as much time. It sounds cliche to say this but it is an opportunity of a lifetime to study abroad. You learn new skills. You learn about yourself as a person. You make connections. You get to explore things you might have read about. You get to experience a part of the world that isn’t your own. There many resources out there to help with studying abroad. Use them. 🙂