Throughout my time abroad I not only got to experience many different cultures and meet several wonderful people, I also grew as an individual as well! I learned a lot about myself, what I like and don’t like, and how I adjust to new surroundings. Personally, I have become stronger and resistant to certain situations. During my time abroad I ran into many negative situations that I had to learn how to handle in new circumstances. I’ve broaden my view of the world and learned to not be so judgmental. I realize that I am so used to living on my room and having such free will that I am a very independent person and enjoy being able to take care of myself.
Professionally/academically my goals haven’t changed at all. I still would like to graduate and continue on to law school. The only thing that didn’t change is the amount of time I will be spending in undergrad. I expected to be able to graduate this upcoming December of 2017 but unfortunately only 2 of my study abroad courses count towards my major at Northeastern……. classic Northeastern. Studying abroad has impacted my view of the world in both a negative and positive aspect. Positively, I realized that I want to discovery more about our world and to continue traveling in my future. Negatively I have learned that many Europeans are very ignorant when it comes to racial views of people from African decent. There are constant generalizations being made and racial comments being said that they believe are okay to say. Although, I did have a couple of negative experiences, I really did enjoy my time in Europe. I don’t regret going abroad at all, because I feel like it has truly been a wonderful experience that I will never get again. To be able to actually say that I lived in Portugal, let alone Europe, is amazing! And with the way my future is looking, going to law school and being a lawyer is not going to give me much time to travel. I’m blessed to have had the opportunities to travel around Europe to many of the destinations I want to go to.
To future study abroad participants I would advise you to definitely research your country of choice beforehand. I am a “lazy traveler” and didn’t research my country at all. I flew there blind with no information regarding their culture, history, etc. All I knew was that they spoke Portuguese and since I was a Portuguese minor I though I would benefit. Had I known what I know now about my host country I probably wouldn’t have decided to go there. But its been a great learning experience and had I chosen somewhere different I might not have had the same life lessons. I also advise future participants to make sure all your classes will fit perfectly with your degree audit ahead of time. I really didn’t have any wiggle room to take nonsense courses abroad for my major. However, within the last year I though I had secured all my course for transfer credit, but then all my advisors changed. I was given a new academic advisor three times and my study abroad coordinator left as well. So with each change of positions I was told different things about my course credit. By the time I realized my courses wouldn’t count towards anything, I was already in Portugal and it was too late to switch courses or come home. Would I study abroad again……. Hmmmmmmm? If I could get my courses to all count towards credit I might study abroad again. However, I feel that the one semester was more than enough for me. I do hope to live in a foreign country when I grow up but for now I need to focus on my studies so that I can graduate.
