Farewell, Comfort Zone…

October 3, 2016

Hello, everyone! My name is Yvette, and I am currently studying abroad for one semester at J.F. Oberlin University in Tokyo, Japan. As of now, I have been in Japan for about two weeks, and I can honestly say that it has been quite an experience so far. I’ve learned so much, both about myself and about how different life is outside of the United States. Prior to studying abroad, I had never stepped foot outside of the U.S., with the exception of the occasional trip to Mexico to visit my grandparents. So, studying abroad was an opportunity for me to do a little bit of traveling and exploring on my own.

My main reason for going abroad was to push myself out of my comfort zone. I’ve always been pretty quiet and shy around new people because I didn’t want to embarrass myself, and I tend to avoid unfamiliar places and situations because I get stressed out when I feel unprepared. I guess you could say that I have a huge fear of the unknown. But I don’t want that fear to take control of my life and make me regret later on in the future; I don’t want to look back on my life and regret not taking chances.

So, in an attempt to step out of my comfort zone, I decided to do something completely different from my usual, mundane routine and put myself in a foreign country where my native language isn’t spoken much. By the end of this five-month experience, I hope to be more comfortable—or at least not as reserved—when faced with unfamiliar situations. In addition, I want to be okay with embarrassing myself. (Weird way to phrase it, but that’s my goal!) In a foreign country where your native language isn’t spoken, making mistakes is certainly inevitable, but that’s how you learn. Hopefully, when I make enough mistakes, I will get used to it and eventually be able to do things without worrying about making a fool out of myself.

To be honest, I didn’t come to Japan with a huge bucket list of places I wanted to see and things I wanted to do—which is very unusual for me, since I’m the kind of human who makes lists more often than taking a shower. I guess my intention when I came to Japan was to go with the flow. There’s so much to see and do in this country, and I don’t want to overwhelm myself already with a bunch of must-see places. So I’ve been taking it easy since I’d arrived on the first of September.

After learning the route to school, I had been exploring the immediate area and gradually branching out to the surrounding areas. I still have yet to find little hole-in-the-wall gems, but I’m looking forward to those special days where I find a really amazing restaurant or store. I’m also curious to see how much I will have changed after studying abroad. I’ve read countless stories and blogs about students who claimed that studying abroad had changed them, so I’m looking forward to seeing if I’ll end up like those students as well!

Written By

Yvette Ortiz

Hello! My name is Yvette, and I am a fifth-year student here at Northeastern. For my final semester as an undergrad, I decided to study abroad in Tokyo, Japan. One of the main reasons I chose to go abroad was my desire to push myself out of my comfort zone, and I figured traveling alone to a foreign country where my native language is rarely used would be a pretty effective way of doing that. Aside from improving my Japanese, my main study-abroad goal is to not be afraid of making mistakes. Since I will be immersed in a completely different culture, I will receive ample opportunities to initiate conversations with native Japanese speakers. I’ll probably make tons of mistakes, but that's okay, because that's what normally happens when you're learning a foreign language while living in a foreign country.