I sat and looked at my closet today thinking, in just over a month I’m going to have to fit my entire wardrobe for four months into maybe one large suitcase. My roommate walked in, asked me what I was doing and my replay was short, “I think I made the wrong choice.”
Ok that sounds harsh, fitting all the shoes I want to bring into limited space is not the only thing having me start to panic. In just over a month I’m about to face so many challenges, from not knowing hardly any of the local language, to making new friends and living with different people, holding a local internship and emerging myself in a completely new culture. That’s reason to panic just a little, right?
I had to remind myself that being nervous is fine. Nerves are actually good. Nerves mean that I’m starting something new, and outside of my comfort zone, the reason why I choose to study abroad in the first place.
College is without a doubt an exciting and evolving time in our lives, but a time that I have found myself to be settling into the same old routine. Get up, go to class, start homework, procrastinate, hangout with friends. It’s a repeat cycle that I’ve gotten use to and comfortable in. Although a nice feeling to be on a routine, it gets old. I’m the kind of person that needs things happening, new things, old things, friends, travel, really anything that keeps my schedule fresh and busy, and keeps me growing as a person. BAM, that’s how Barcelona fell into my lap.
Although, it wasn’t an easy process deciding on Barcelona (there’s so many amazing places in the world I would have loved to go to), it was easy deciding that it was time to get myself out of my comfort zone and study abroad across the world. Stepping out of my comfort zone will break my routine and hopefully help me discover new things about myself as I find out new things about the world.
So yes, I am nervous. As is, I assume most everyone that’s starting this journey with me is too, but it’s not the wrong choice. It’s the right choice, at the right time, even if I have to leave over half my closet at home (: