Why Study Abroad?
Everyone has their own answers to this question. Some just go to live in a foreign country, others go just to get away from the reality of home, but for me, I wanted it all. I have been planning studying in Australia since high school and even chose my college around the fact that I wanted to be able to afford to go abroad. I wanted the entire experience. The experience of travelling, living on my own, budgeting my life savings but most importantly, I wanted to see how I would handle moving 16,000 miles away from home, knowing absolutely no one and having no expectations of what would happen next.
In the past 4 months, I have been successful in this journey. I have kept up my grades, stuck (mostly) to my budget and made friends from around the world. My grades do not transfer back to Bridgewater State, they only transfer back as Transfer credits, but I do not that I did my usual. Straight A’s and B’s. I have a 3 more assignments left in the semester and then its over. I made it through my abroad experience alive!
Of course there have been sacrifices along the way, but in the end, like I always say “everything happens for a reason.” I decided to spend my money on trips instead of going out to restaurants and bars. After doing my finances with my family, I realized this trip is an enormous debt waiting for me to return. Travelling and experiencing the world is more important to me than spending money on clothes or intangible items. Senior year of college will be spent commuting from home, working at best buy, and travelling. Ask me 3 years ago about what invisioned my senior year looking like, none of the above things mentioned would be there. It’s a give and take and the money that I have spent on an experience of a lifetime is worth living in a dorm a million times over. 
What conclusion has this brought me to? Easy. I want to travel everywhere. Before I got here, people had told me “congratulations, if you survive going to Australia, you can go anywhere.” I still don’t understand why I wouldn’t have survived, but I have a feeling its about the distance away from home. I’ve only missed a few things at home which made me re-evaluate what was really important when I go back home. I miss working, its true I am a work-aholic and I need to be back at Best Buy. Secondly, I miss my family, my immediate family and my best buy family. But in only 7 weeks I will be returning to New England with a new sense of what “home” really is. For the second half of 2010, it’ll be very difficult to top the first half, but I have a feeling it’ll be perfect. 
