Hands down, college will be the quickest 4 years of your life. Living a college student's life is really unlike any other experience you will have in your life. It is four years full of new experiences, all-nighters, great friends, and of course, lot's of fun! While it may seem tempting to soak up every second of time on your college campus before you graduate, one of the greatest things you can do in college is study abroad for many reasons.
1. It will never be this easy and cheap again.
There is no other time in your life where it will be so easy and financially feasible to pick up your life and move to another country for five months. Most colleges have very affordable study abroad programs you can choose between that cost around the same as your normal tuition or not much more. Once you graduate it won't be very easy to leave your job and apartment to go try living somewhere new. Let's be real you'll also be paying off your student loans by then, so take advantage of it before those kick in.
2. You'll grow and experience so much.
In your time abroad you will be in a new place with new people doing new things and all of this will allow you to mature and learn to deal with a variety of situations. You will be traveling to a completely different part of the world and doing it all without the help of your parents. Studying abroad is a great time to gain more independence and confidence in yourself. When you look back on when you first arrived and how nervous you might have been to book a weekend getaway on that foreign airline and stay in a hostel and see how easy it all seems now you'll be amazed at how far you've come.
3. You'll explore so many new places.
No matter where you study abroad in the world, you're sure to have tons of adventures all over the place. One of the best parts of studying abroad is the ability to travel a lot and with many study abroad programs not having classes on Fridays, you'll be able to do it a lot. Whether you are in Europe hitting up a different country every weekend or South America exploring all over Brazil or in Asia exploring the islands off Thailand or anywhere else in the world you'll be having the time of your life. While your friends are back at college dying of boredom in class you'll be making them all jealous with your daily Instagram posts of amazing places.
4. You get out of your comfort zone.
5. It's a great time to try new foods.
Yum. One great thing about going somewhere new is now you can justify eating everything in sight through your desire to truly experience and understand the culture of the country better. You’ll see new and unusual foods that are unlike anything found in your home college’s dining hall, so give it a try while you can and who knows you may find a new favorite food. Eat your weight in pasta and gelato in Italy or empanadas in South America and enjoy every second of it.
6. You'll make lots of new Friends.
A fun part about studying abroad is that you get to meet so many new people. You’ve gone to college with the same people for at least two years at this point probably and you’ve gotten into a routine with them. Going abroad breaks up that routine and allows you to make a whole new circle of friends from all over the country and maybe even world. Meeting people from new places will expand the number places you can visit next and meeting locals will allow you to learn about places in your city that won’t be full of tourists and other study abroad students.
7. It's a perfect time to re-remember what you love about your college.
When I went abroad I was kind of tired of my college, which is why going to Spain could not have come at a better time. I had completed two extremely quick years of college already and was in a bit of a rut and routine. To anyone else feeling that way: STUDY ABROAD. There is no better way to mix up your routine than moving to another country for a few months and experiencing all new things. It will allow you to talk about your college with people that may know nothing about it and share what you love about it. This will make you remember again why ended up at the school that you did. When you return after a semester abroad it will be a weird mix of missing your home country and being happy to be back. Channel your memories from abroad and remind yourself of why you love your college and do all the things you missed while abroad. Take some spontaneous trips, so as to keep the adventurous spirit alive after you’ve been gallivanting around for months and be happy that you’ve been able to experience two completely different college experiences.
Just remember that you'll get more out of a semester abroad than you will miss at a semester at your home college, so start saving your money and researching locations so you too can experience the greatness of studying abroad.
