Journey to the Other Side of the Earth

Welcome to my blog!  My name is Lucy Swett.  I am a sophomore at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, PA, and I am majoring in Computer Science and minoring in Chinese. I am really excited about studying abroad in China next semester!  I even have a countdown that counts down to the second.  At this moment in time, it is 11 days, 1 hour, 39 minutes, and 57 seconds until I will be in Shanghai!

Going to China this spring semester could almost be classified as a spontaneous decision.   Just a few weeks ago I discovered that if I waited until my junior year to go abroad, I would not be able to graduate in 4 years, so I found this program in a hurry.  I applied on the day of the application deadline, and found myself hastily researching the program after applying!

Having said that, I have always wanted to go to China.   I was adopted from Hubei, China when I was one-year-old, and I have been waiting for the right opportunity to go to China since then.  Deciding to actually join this program was a hard decision for me.  For some people, this might have been an easy decision or something they had been planning for a while, but for me this is happening earlier than I expected.  I am missing other activities at Lehigh next semester that I was looking forward to participating in.  Therefore, it was important to me to step back and reflect on my options before making my decision.

I found out I was accepted in the program just a few days after applying.  Then, I had to confirm my spot a week after that.  I was very conflicted about if this was the right time for me to study abroad.  However, I got in touch with some of the people that will go on the trip with me, and I am really excited to get to know them. As I was getting classes approved by my school, I called the program director to make sure I was getting classes approved that were going to be offered for the upcoming semester.  Much to my dismay, they did not have the courses that I had already gotten approved.  This put a wrench in my plans to study abroad, but again, after much thought, I decided that China was going to be such an impactful experience that it wasn’t as important to have the perfect schedule.  I just had to learn to be flexible with all the problems that seemed to make this decision to go to China a little bit harder.  In the end, it came down to how much I wanted this opportunity, and I am really eager for this experience!  I mean I have a countdown to the second!  Of course I have to go! 

On a more serious note, this is a huge decision for me.  It is going to be life-changing. That is why I thought about this a lot, and after much consideration I am very excited to say that I am going to China!  I can’t wait to tell you more once the journey begins!