After Study Abroad

I’ve been home for about two weeks now and it’s is unbelievable to think that my time abroad has already come and gone. I honestly had the most amazing time and am so grateful for the opportunities that I was given. While I was abroad I got to see Cambridge, Stratford-Upon-Avon, London, Oxford, Copenhagen, Dublin, the Cliffs of Moher, and Paris. I met the most amazing people, both in my program, and at St. Catherine’s College, Oxford. I got a chance to take a step back from the responsibilities and familiarity at my home institution and dove into a completely new style of individual learning. I saw and felt first-hand cultural differences and historical legacies in all of the places that I was fortunate enough to visit. I’m all about perspective and having as much of it as possible so needless to say I value each of these experiences very highly. But I think that the coolest part was that it didn’t devalue any of the experiences that I had beforehand.
Equally as valuable as all of the amazing things that I saw and learned while in England was the way that these things made me put the rest of my life in perspective. The communication skills that I have been building in Rochester were helpful even in a different country, even among a completely new crew of people. My friends from IES and Oxford are amazing and brilliant but so are my friends at Rochester. And that’s not to say that my experience abroad was not eye-opening, because it most certainly was, but it just made me realize more than I even had before that things aren’t inherently better in either place. People are people and some are grumpy and some are nice, and some are ignorant and some are open-minded, and that doesn’t change no matter where you go. Just because there are cobblestone streets that doesn’t mean that there isn’t graffiti around the corner.
Overall, study abroad was one of the craziest, diverse, and valuable three months of my life and I am so thankful for all of the opportunities that I was given during that time. The friendships that I made and the things I learned will last a very long time and so will my appreciation for what I have back home and the opportunities that I have here.