Jet setting : Study Abroad Reflection 1

I wanted to write out these journals, so I can remind myself and show other minority students like me, my experience of going abroad as a black girl from America.

Photo by Laurenz Kleinheider on Unsplash

So, we are on our way to do something exciting. We are in the process of studying abroad….

When I was in high school, I heard of study abroad but didn't really know what it meant to study abroad. I just knew it was a time that students could go other places other than America. I probably thought that it was free, which I now know is sadly that the truth. Either way, ever since I was little,

I decided that I was going to abroad.

This semester when the time came for me to decide if I was really about to do this, I just went for it. Finding a program to study abroad was so challenging,because I had no idea of what I wanted. I had no dream location, school, program…. Nothing! I went to the study abroad office twice, and each time I left with more questions than I came with. I was honestly getting hopeless, until I scheduled a meeting with a counselor in the study abroad office that everyone recommended. I was to the point that if this man did not help me, I was staying in America.

From our first appointment, I had already felt better. I laid out everything I thought was possible an option, like going to a Spanish speaking program, going to Africa, going Canada, and really all of these crazy possibilities. The only stipulation I had was that I wanted to go during the summer. Unfortunately, by the time I walked out of the office at the end of our first appointment, I knew that my chances of studying abroad during the summer was slim…and that terrified me. This whole time I planned for study abroad, I never planned to go for longer than a month, and now that was my only option. By the third time we met, I had an idea of what schools I was going to apply to. I had decided that I was going to apply to two schools in the UK and one university in South Africa.

The application process wasn't that hard, but I just remember feeling out the application like an out-of-body experience. It’s like I was feeling out the application, but still didn't think I was really going to study abroad. It took my acceptance letter from the program and a university in the UK, for me to realize that this was real…

I am going abroad.

Once going abroad became a reality, that’s when the fears began to kick in. I began to doubt if this was a good idea. Ever since my acceptance, I spend days being excited and utterly terrified to fly around the world to live for three months. Terrified to leave behind everything I know, my family, friends, school, and place myself in an environment with no familiarity. I want to be like those cool YouTubers I see on the internet, like Damon and Jo, who take the world by storm, but I don’t know if I have that in me....