Fifteen Years in the Making: A Letter to my Past Selves About Study Abroad
Let me start by addressing my past selves, beginning with five-year-old me. Remember how you went to LEGOLand and went through the mini LEGO cities? You saw the Sydney Opera House and instantly thought Wow, I need to go there! You learned that the magnificent structure in front of you was real and located in a place called Sydney, Australia. From that point on, you knew you needed to go to Sydney and see Australia for yourself. Australia became a place of wonder and utter coolness. Moving on a few years, you learned about the concept of study abroad when mom told you about her year-long experience in Paris and her escapades around Europe. The way she described her time there and all the incredible things she experienced made study abroad become a vital part of your future plans; you wanted to be just like her and have a similar experience. Now, we’re at fifteen and Evan, my brother, is going abroad to Sydney, Australia to study at the University of New South Wales (UNSW). Thanks to him, you finally get to travel to Sydney for the first time to visit him. Remember how amazing that trip was and how excited it made you about the possibility that you could do the same thing in a few years? All you had to do was wait and eventually that experience would be yours to live and treasure. And finally, let me address myself from five months ago, the me who was so stressed out about leaving for Sydney. You were so scared about making the most of the experience, meeting new people and just living in a new country for a few months. Well, past selves and reader, let me paint the story about my life in Sydney – spoiler, it was everything I hoped it would be and more.
Friends. They Make Everything Better.
When I first arrived, I was so worried about making friends to enjoy my time in Sydney with as well as to be travel companions for trips around Australia. Thankfully, the University of Sydney provided so many opportunities to meet new people during the two weeks of orientation. That, combined with my “Yes to Everything” mindset, led me to joining a massive Instagram groupchat with over 60 people in it which is where I met my core friend group in Sydney. Every Tuesday night, my group of 14 goes to trivia night and every Thursday we go play musical bingo and sing karaoke. We’ve spent so much time together, often going to any of the iconic beaches of Sydney, seen a show at the Opera House (bucket list item checked off), gone to Tasmania and even Taylor-gating one of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour shows at Accor Stadium. These people have been such a crucial part of my study abroad experience and truly brightened up the experience overall. The other fun thing is I now have an excuse to travel to the Eastern United States, Germany and even Norway to visit friends; I’m particularly excited about the possibility of visiting Frøya in Norway to see the Northern lights with her, which she somehow has never seen despite living there her whole life. Besides these friends, I was also introduced to fellow UC students at our UCEAP orientation. The other UC students are all amazing and we try our best to spend time together as a group, going to beaches, markets and nights out together. With Abby, I’m going to the Great Barrier Reef, achieving one of my biggest goals for this experience and honoring my younger self who always wanted to go see it. I’m beyond pleased to tell all of my past selves that making friends came with ease and they all enhanced my experience, making it the best possible.
Travel Log
Next, let me tell you about all the places we traveled to while in Australia. Ironically, the first place I went was not in Australia but was rather the South Island of New Zealand. I traveled the whole South Island from the top to the bottom with my parents, going on a week-long road trip seeing all the sights of the island. This trip took us to incredible places like the Marlborough Sounds, Christchurch, the Franz Josef Glacier, Queenstown and Milford Sound. While the trip was tiring, it was incredible to see so much natural beauty and experience New Zealand. We enjoyed such amazing experiences that will have a lasting impact on me and are little memory troves within my mind. The next trip was to Tasmania with my friends. Shockingly, I planned a whole weekend trip for a group of eight people, involving a day-long road trip around the island to Launceston and the Bay of Fires and a trip to Maria Island; I am proud of my growth and ability to plan the whole trip for the group, something I didn’t know I could do previously. This trip showed me the joy of traveling with friends and is the source of so many amazing stories and inside jokes like our love for all the wombats (fondly nicknamed womps) on Maria Island. The other standout of this trip was achieving another life-long goal of wanting to find a fossil; we went to a place called Fossil Cliffs and fossils were everywhere, making a dream come true. My next trip was a solo trip from Brisbane to Surfers Paradise to Byron Bay. The idea of a solo trip was frightening as I prefer to go places with friends and rarely go out alone, but it truly helped me grow as a person and was an amazing experience that also reminded me of home back in Socal. While these trips have not happened yet, I am so excited about going to Cairns to see the Great Barrier Reef with Abby and going to Melbourne with the others at the end of the month. In the end, I traveled so much and truly got to experience so much of what Australia has to offer and even have excuses to come back and see all the places I didn’t have time for on this trip.
Yes to Everything: The Key to Growth
The final, most important thing to tell you all is how this experience taught me to push my limits. Back at home, I settled into a routine that was comfortable and I decided to truly live by my “Yes to Everything” mindset to make the most of my time in Australia. This mindset led me, who isn’t the biggest fan of heights, to jump out of a plane with my roommates and bungee jump off a bridge in Queenstown, both things I always wanted to do but was too afraid to commit. Moreover, a solo trip is something I never would’ve considered prior to coming to Australia, but I am beyond proud of myself for doing it as I had such a great time exploring parts of Queensland alone with myself and my thoughts. It was also an amazing experience to meet backpackers in hostels, hearing their stories about how they came to be in Australia and what they plan to do as they continue their travels or return home. My “Yes to Everything” mindset truly changed me as a person. Being someone who struggles with anxiety, I often doubt myself and keep within my comforts, making me feel FOMO at times, yet my time abroad taught me how to live and experience the most even when it is uncomfortable. This is something I could only learn while abroad as it put me in a completely foreign environment with a time limit to experience as much as possible. Whenever I found myself afraid or unsure, I thought When in Australia, you might as well do it and then I did. I know I’ll keep this mindset when I go back home and will ensure to keep making the most out of the life that I live.
In the end, to all my past selves: you did it, you achieved your fifteen-year long goal of going abroad to Sydney. You finally went abroad to Sydney and it was so much better than you ever imagined. Not only did you experience everything that you had hoped you would, you came out of it with immense personal growth that will carry on throughout our life. In the end, I like to think of this semester and my time abroad as a coming of age montage in a movie: it’s something beautiful, scary, exciting and difficult all at the same time but beyond worth it. And reader, if there’s one thing I want you to take from this is stay true to yourself even if you may sometimes be on your own in new and uncomfortable situations, but take in the moment and truly taste it – you’ll thank yourself later.