Hello readers, my name is Amy and I am currently on the biggest adventure I've ever embarked upon. For the next three months I will be studying abroad in Oxford, England and traveling to nearby destinations for the first time. But before I can tell you about now, I need to cover the how. And for that, I have to start at the beginning.
When I was a child, I really wanted to travel. I wanted to visit different states, fly to different coasts and see different things.
When I was a preteen, I wanted everyone to know that I wanted to travel. When people asked, I almost always included travel in my list of favorite things (even though I hadn't really done much travel at all, other than a few family vacations).
When I was a teenager, I wanted to travel internationally. I wasn't able to go on a school trip to Italy a few of my classmates when on, so going to Italy became my new goal. I wanted to see Italy and I wanted to see the world.
When I was looking at colleges, I wanted to study abroad. I wanted to pick a school with great study abroad opportunities. At every college visit I would inquire about locations and look at pamphlets and brochures of college students having the time of their lives living in a foreign country, and that's what I wanted.
When I started college, I had a hard time adjusting to being in a new place, at a new school with new people, and my plans began to change. I decided that, as much as I had always wanted to travel, maybe being away from home, being in an entirely different country, for so long wasn't the right path for me. I let myself rule out study abroad out of fear.
Spring of my Freshman year, I had the head of High Point's Faculty in Residence Program as a professor, and as he talked about his plans for a Prague Faculty in Resident program I was jealous of those who would be able to join in on this amazing adventure, but I resigned myself to the fact that this particularly type of adventure was not right for me and I put it out of my mind.
But then, the following Fall, I received an email about an Oxford Faculty in Residence Program, and I allowed myself to think about study abroad once more. I have always been a bit of an anglophile. As a child I loved Harry Potter and speaking in British accents and as I have grown up I have enjoyed British television, musicians and culture in general. The idea of being in England for four months was too tempting to resist investigating further. My search turned up more and more reasons for me to throw caution to the wind (please excuse the cliche) and allow myself to do the thing I wanted so badly to do all my life: travel internationally while studying abroad.
A number of things made me feel more and more sure of my decision to study abroad in Oxford: the HPU professor traveling with us, the ease of getting credits transfered due to the relationship between Brookes and HPU and the people with whom I'm able to share this adventure. Although it was not planned this way (I assured them as well as my family that I would still want to go even if they weren't going), my best friend from high school, my sophomore year roommate and a close friend from High Point are on this trip as well.
I can still remember when I told my parents that I was once again considering study abroad. I said it so nonchalantly and I think it threw my mom for a loop. I had not really spoken about it since I had decided that I wouldn't pursue it, and all of a sudden I was home telling them I wanted to put down my deposit when we got back to school. It was all very quick, but I think that was better for me. It didn't give me as much time to worry and talk myself out of it before I became financially committed.
And truly, I know that I made the right decision. I had grown and changed a lot in my first year of college, and although my rough first year caused me to initially rule out study abroad, I came to realize that it better prepared me for this semester away from home. I'm stronger, more independent and more positive--I know that frustrations are temporary and that sometimes it takes a little time (and the right mindset) to settle into a new place. I think I needed an opportunity like this to prove to myself that I have matured since I was a freshman in college and that I can conquer my fears.
Henry David Thoreau said "Not until we are lost do we begin to find ourselves." This is true of my long and drawn out journey to the decision to study abroad that brought me to where I am today: Oxford, England ready to have the time of my life. I may have gotten a little lost along the way, but because of that I feel stronger in my convictions and my decisions and I know I have great semester ahead of me.
So there you have it. The how that leads to now. (I swear I did not intend for that rhyme to occur. It just happened, I promise.) Although you've already heard more about myself and my story then you probably wanted to, I'll explain a little bit about what I want to get out of this semester. As you may have been able to surmise, I've never been to Europe before now. This is my first time travelling internationally other than Mexico (which I don't think really counts because it's on the same continent as America) so I'm excited to get a taste of Europe.
I know I can't see everything (really, you couldn't even see everything in one lifetime) I want to get a feel for what places I like, what places I didn't, and places I may want to explore further in the future. I like to think of it as an appetizer sampler at a restaurant. You don't get very much of any one food, but you learn what you want to order next time.
I have big plans for this semester, and you'll have to follow along to figure out just what they are.
Cheers! Amy
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