London

When I was little, my mom would play the song 'I Will' by The Beatles as I danced around the kitchen trying to sing the words. 

"This is your song Lex," she would say, "I played this for you when you were in my belly hoping you would hear it, because I knew I loved you before I even met you."

At the time, I didn't register the weight of that statement, but as I grew older and my Beatles obsession and understanding of the lyrics flourished, I realized the unconditional love my Mother had for me, and it gave me the foundation to discover who I wanted to be. 

I spent my childhood trying every activity under the sun, but it was always art that I would fall back to because it let me express myself in a way that nothing else could. I wrote my own songs, filmed my own videos, and wrote stories in notebooks filled with the good, the bad, and the sarcastic until my fingers hurt. I learned how to knit and sew so I could make my own clothes and watched hours of So You Think You Can Dance to learn how because I always believed that was what music was meant for.

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I developed a passion for photography and how a single snapshot can hold more than what the eye can see. I called these magical moments: a friend's laugh that is funnier than the joke itself, the exciting news you've been waiting all day to tell somebody, the nervous energy of doing something for the first time. They are the stories behind the pixels that shape our memories and go unspoken and uncaptured.

I had an itch for adventure that grew with me as I got older, and last summer when it came time to pick a place to study abroad, London was at the top of my list. The art, history, and fashion intrigued me, and spending the younger years of my life dressing up as a princess to have tea parties with my sister and our Beauty and the Beast tea set made it the clear choice. To me, it made sense because it was a place where I could continue to explore my art and be unapologetically myself, not to mention taking a few pictures on Abbey Road. 

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It wasn't until I started telling people where I was studying that I realized the choice wasn't as clear to everyone else as it was to me. I had always kept my artistic side to myself, especially in college because it was the one thing that was 100% mine at a school living in a house of 120 girls who shared everything. When my friends started asking me to explain why I chose London, and I saw the surprise on their faces when I told them all the things I'm passionate about, I realized that I had been hiding so much of who I was for so long. I wanted to change that, but when they would ask me to show them my work I would freeze. I had been keeping it to myself for so long that it became challenging to open up to people. I spent all semester slowly getting comfortable with expressing my creativity more openly, and when the application came out to be an IES Correspondant, I knew it was the perfect way to do that.

The best piece of advice I received about going abroad was, "don't tell people who you are, show them." I want this blog to be a place to share my adventures through the things that inspire me the most, and I'm excited to be able to do that in just a few short days! So let's begin...

These are my magical moments, the snapshots of my life that I have taken or edited that motivate me as I prepare for the adventure of a lifetime. I hope they can do the same for you.

Creatively yours,

-Lex <3

Uncertainty can be terrifying. And let me tell you, study abroad is full of uncertainty. I know this because I spent last semester with IES in Vienna, Austria. I was terrified at the start of that semester, and I'm only a bit less terrified now. I'm also here to tell you (and remind myself) that study abroad is thrilling and transformative and a precious chance for self-discovery. I know you've probably heard all this before, but I hope it sinks in the more often you hear it.

How often do you get this chance, to leave behind the typical and discover something entirely new? As college students, we are at a juncture where shaping our identity and affirming our self-sufficiency is quite important. I know moving away to college was a big step towards this independence, but study abroad is an even greater way to learn about oneself.

When I woke up that first August morning, in a Viennese apartment with four strangers, I wondered "When nobody here knows me, who am I? Here, where I have no leadership positions or club memberships, what will I be known for? Here, where I don't speak the language or know how to use the public transit system?" I got to know people, both American and Austrian, very dearly, and I distanced my identity from the past achievements I've made. Now that's success! And I ended the semester feeling a bit more confident about navigating my new home and the German language. 

In Vienna, I relished being a daily explorer, through Christmas markets, palaces and grocery stores. I was able to connect with all kinds of people, from Viennese kindergartners at my internship who taught me traditional children's songs, to fellow psychology students who I might reunite with during graduate school. It is so tempting to stay in your comfort zone, with your friends who know the littlest things about you, like what your fast food joint of choice is, and the biggest things about you, like how much time alone you need to stay sane.

Now, I'm awestruck by the speed at which my study abroad friends got to know me. I promise you, dear reader, and I promise myself that investing in friendships abroad is worth it. Anyway, this time is temporary, so if you're longing to return to your comfort zone while abroad, that time will come. But the ephemerality of this time abroad is what makes it so valuable. Each day is a rare opportunity to see something entirely new, talk to someone with a different perspective and surround yourself with beauty. That's why I'm going abroad for another semester (and because my home school, Pomona College, has been wonderfully generous to me, which I appreciate so much.) I'm not done exploring or learning about myself. I'm sure London will teach me things that I haven't yet learned in Vienna. I will turn 20 while in the United Kingdom, and I'm just amazed how far I've come since my 19th birthday. Here's to more striking out on my own, traversing national borders, studying with insightful professors, and making precious friendships in 2020!