Goodbye Europe
This week I say my final goodbyes to Europe and prepare to finally head home to the states. It’s been a long 5 weeks, filled with many adventures, hardships, and emotions. So much has happened in such a short amount of time that I haven’t really had a chance to process it all yet, but I feel like I have changed in some ways because of my experiences abroad.
The most obvious and important change is that I feel more worldly now. The benefit of traveling abroad is that you are exposed to new cultures and people, and you need to constantly adapt to fit in with the cultural values and rules of etiquette of each new place. I found this challenging, but also educational and fun. Being exposed to so many cities, each with a different history and culture, forced me to be more flexible and adaptable in my interactions with new places and people. I had to approach problems differently from the way I would in the US. These problem solving skills, as well as an attention to cultural norms and how they may be different from my home country, are invaluable to me as I continue to travel, as well as after I return home. Flexibility, creativity, and cultural sensitivity will always be useful in helping me interact with people, handle situations, and achieve my goals.
This trip helped me to clarify my current goals and form some additional goals as well. I joked before I left that I was going on a house hunting tour of Europe, and while that may have been an overstatement, I did pay attention to which cities and countries I like best and for what reasons, with the intention of deciding on a city I could see myself returning to for another abroad experience. I found that places fell into one of three categories: finished visiting, would visit again, and would live in. I was surprised somewhat at the results, which is good because that means I can correct some previous assumptions I had made, without personal experience, about certain cities and countries in Europe. I am grateful that I had such a broad range of experiences in Europe to compare and contrast. I now have a much clearer picture of what to take into account when choosing a future study abroad experience and what to expect from my new home once I start.
Looking back on this experience in five or ten years, I know a few things are going to stand out. First, I’m always going to remember and appreciate how caring, helpful, accepting and fun the group of people I shared this experience with were. Putting 25 people together to trek around Europe for five weeks can be risky, but we were fortunate to have a wonderful group that meshed well and enhanced the experience rather than degraded it. My favorite memories are of meeting new friends and sharing new experiences with them, and those will stick with me. Of course, we owe so much to our amazing professors and group leader as well, who made everything possible and ensured that our experience was as rewarding and memorable as possible. Being on close terms with your faculty leaders can be difficult in other settings, but on Dialogue it’s impossible to avoid and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I can’t imagine what this trip would be like without them and I will always remember them for their contributions and assurances.
Finally, I will remember this trip as one that crossed some important childhood dreams off of my bucket list. I accomplished so many personal goals this summer, which is amazing and important to me at a deeply personal level. I’ve never felt so powerful, in that I’ve been able to take so many dreams and transfer them into reality in such a short amount of time, at such a young age too. It is so rewarding to be able to see and experience things you’ve only ever imagined your entire life, and I didn’t even have to wait that long. I will always be grateful to Northeastern for the opportunity to accomplish this and I look forward to making more dreams come true in the future.
