One does not quite understand the essence of leaving their own country, their safety net, until they are in another city ways from home. Whenever I talk about being abroad, I often get eye rolled and some commentary like "oh your one of those," as if it were somehow bad to study abroad. It is this attitude that has come to surprise me time in and time out. It is this negative attitude that I often find relief from while I am not home.

Two years ago exactly I flew from Boston to London, my second time leaving the country, my first time being alone. There were no your guides, or people that forced you to be out in the city and discover things. I had to go out and find these historical sites; and hot spots for myself. At first I found myself out with other American students in my situation, many of whom spent their time out at night after scouring Tesco's beer and wine collections, and I mean why would you not do that when wine costs roughly three dollars for a bottle? The difference between myself and the majority of my friends however, was that I did not jump at every chance I got to drink, even though the mixed drinks I found around England were arguably better than any I'd had at home. I find myself still questioning how I survive spring break without an ice cold glass of Pimm's. After a week or so my flatmates began to pop out of the rooms returning from their winter breaks and I made the closest friends I'd had since childhood.

If there is a difference In British and American society, you know besides the castles, coveted jewel, and eccentric churches, it is the people. I found that whether I'm in a train station or surrounded by street music and holiday infused decor people are extremely friendly always stopping to say hello or exchanging directions to the nearest tube, bar, or shops. To be fair nobody, really talks once on the tube, at least not very loudly as it is quite rude, but outside of that there are millions of people coming from all over the world, speaking all different languages and there is absolutely nothing more stunning.

I did take home some artifacts, tea, and pictures of Europe's historical sites but those objects do not last forever. What I found myself missing after returning home was the people. The way people literally ask you if you want tea everytime you walk into a room, like there will soon be no tea left in the world, or they way my friends would ask if I was alright rather than just say how are you? That was really confusing the first several times to be clear, as I thought they were inquiring about my health, and believed I quite literally looked not alright.

So for all the eye rollers and sighers when I open my mouth or dare say write an article or essay about my studies abroad, I dare you to leave the country alone, and explore. I dare you to meet the locals and make friends whom you are close to even when you are 3266 miles away. I firmly believe that once you do this, I will soon hear you talking about your home away from home, the city whose lights you are dying to see and quite literally feel homesick for, even though you were not born or raised in that city. You will find that though you once thought going overseas to be a cliche new cities like London do actually change your life, your perceptions on universal issues, and will make your heart ache every time you are forced to watch the sunset over the Thames from an airplane heading home to watch the sunrise in your own beautiful city, Boston.