If you're young like me, you'll always be put into new situations. Hell, if you're any age at all you'll be put in new situations. However, the older you get, the better you'll know how to handle yourself. Being the optimistic, 21-year-old college student that I am, I've tried my best fit in with the crowd to keep friends and learn a thing or two from the people who surround me. Nevertheless, reaching the end of my college career and studying abroad taught me that fitting in is exhausting, and I have a much better time when I don't.
The weeks I spent studying in Ireland were draining and exciting, but memorable. With new experiences, came new people. Before traveling, I was warned that it is human nature to latch onto people in unfamiliar situations to avoid feeling alone. New people are great. New cultural immersions are great. However, forgetting who I really am and why I decided to take the opportunity of a lifetime is not great.
It is easy for most people to let the social patterns of a group in a new experience alter true values and habits. When we are facing a new environment that we aren't at all used to, the easiest thing to do is latch onto others and follow what they're doing in order to avoid conflict or fit in. Though I wasn't in Limerick for very long, I watched students waste their time during the study abroad experience on parties that turn into hangovers the next day, or drugs that make all of us Americans look bad to the people who let us in with open arms. Personality change in a new environment isn't always that extreme. It can be as simple as wasting your hard-earned money on explorations that others want to do, even if you don't want to.
I have always been a natural introvert. I love to spend time with friends and meet new people but my social battery runs out pretty quick, and being alone for a while is the only way to get back on track. When I decided to go abroad, I figured this could be an issue for me but I wanted to push through anyway since I knew it would be the chance of a lifetime, and nothing should hold me back from doing something that I may never have a chance to in the future.
Because I chose my own happiness to take this amazing trip, I decided that this was how I wanted to live my entire life. Sure, we need to make sacrifices for others, but being a little selfish at times to do what's best for me, my happiness, my wallet, and my overall well-being are most definitely necessary.
If you are the one who is always going with the flow in order to satisfy everyone else, my advice for you is to do what you want whenever possible. Never let new experiences make you forget who you are and always keep your values in mind. The older you get, the more you will regret not what you did do, but what you didn't do.
