Excuse My Soapbox

 

I wrote a post on the transatlantic flight to Prague, so now it only seems fitting that I write one on the flight back, just to bookend the whole experience. The last plane post was tough, but contrary to what I would have thought at the time, I think this post is even harder to write.

 

In case you haven’t caught on, I am totally sold on the whole study abroad thing.  And I intend to convince many students to at least look into study abroad.  Here are some reasons why I think any Rockhurst student (or any student in general) should think about going abroad:

 

1.      Rockhurst will always be Rockhurst.  This is what one of my friends from Rockhurst told me about going abroad—that Rockhurst will always be there when you get back, and the friends you have there will remain your friends.  Sometimes it almost scares me that I would have missed out on essentially a whole bonus college experience if I had never gone outside of my comfort zone.  And let’s face it, college is great, so why not get two college experiences out of your college career?

2.      A new set of friends.  One thing that really scared me was the fact that I didn’t know ANYONE in my program.  No one was even from my state, much less my school.  But while you are abroad with a limited group of people, they become your family.  My roommate Monica said that her mom told her she would make life-long while abroad, and I heard that from my aunt, too—and Monica and I have decided that we are going to be like that.  In fact, I have already mentally composed a Facebook message with life updates to send her as soon as I get home, and it has barely been 24 hours since I’ve seen her. 

3.      Some things are worth going broke for.  I’m out of money.  I will be selling my soul to the West County Y this break and to the Learning Center when I get back to Rockhurst in order to scrape up enough minimum wage to salvage my bank account.  And I don’t regret one plane ticket, one crepe, one museum pass, or one souvenir of it. 

4.      “Once you get the wanderlust, there’ll be no working for ya.”  An old Irish gentleman told me this on my plane back from Dublin as I was telling him about my travels.  And he’s right.  I’ve got the wanderlust.  I intend to see more of the world and more of my own country.  I am currently trying to figure out how to rebuild my bank account enough to visit all of my new friends in Denver, California, Vegas, and all sorts of cool places.

5.      The hardest part is the end.  My friend Dylan said that this was the piece of advice one of his friends gave him about study abroad, and I have found it to be most true.  Leaving home was hard, and friends and family can testify to the amount of tears I shed.  But leaving Prague has been infinitely harder. 

 

Basically, there is nothing more fun, more enlightening, and more of a growing experience than seeing the world while you are a student. 

 

Feel free to contact me if you want to learn more about study abroad at Rockhurst from a student’s perspective, check out study abroad options on the Rockhurst website: http://www.rockhurst.edu/academics/international/study-abroad/overview/.  Then just take a deep breath and just DO IT!