春水堂视频

Image caption: Bamboo rafts in Yangshuo, China, 2018 | Photo courtesy of Jasmine Ioi

Studying abroad can be听daunting, full of firsts for anyone: first time on an airplane, first time leaving the country听or first time packing for more than a month away from home. For me, it was my first time leaving the bubble of my home, my family, my friends听and everything I鈥檝e ever known for more than a couple weeks.

A lot of American college students, at the very least, are 鈥渟ent off鈥� for a semester at a time; my big brother got a big send-off when he left for school in Indiana, but me leaving for Boulder was a little different. I鈥檝e more or less lived my entire life about an hour away from here鈥攎y big college 鈥渟end-off鈥� was my dad dropping me and all of my things off at Baker Hall听before he went to work for the day in Denver. As a result, I think my own experience of really, truly being physically separated from my home was put off until I left Boulder to spend a semester in Shanghai, China.

I didn鈥檛 even know what kind of emotional impact to brace myself for until I was already there. The whirlwind of submitting program applications, applying for a student visa, booking plane tickets, finding housing, packing, flying to Los Angeles, flying from LA across the Pacific听and finally ending up on the ground in a wildly different place听had听a way of prioritizing itself over any feelings I may have had about it.

Those emotions might hit听you all听at once when you wake up at 3 a.m. local time due to jetlag. My most vivid memory of the first week听in Shanghai听is waking up in shock at my host family鈥檚 apartment thinking, 鈥淥h no. I may have made a mistake.鈥�

Don鈥檛 worry.听I didn鈥檛 feel that way for long. In fact, I survived long enough to make it back to the states and write a retrospective paper on the experience two years later. I had an amazing time, and, once the shock wore off, I even worked up the nerve to travel outside of the big city and see what else China had听to offer; the furthest afield I made it was the Giant Buddha statue in Leshan, just outside of Chengdu, for the Tomb Sweeping holiday weekend.听

My point in writing about the abject horror one may have at the realization you have left home for the other side of the world is that听the terror will be short-lived, and the experiences you carry away will last forever. I learned so much about myself and my capability to overcome fear of the unknown. I鈥檓 actually planning on returning to China next year for grad school.

None of the doors I now听have open to me would exist if I had not taken that initial leap of faith and stuck it out long enough to realize: Different isn鈥檛 the same as bad. Studying abroad may entail a myriad听of fears, but overcoming those fears听will open you to a world you never knew existed.

Author听Meredith Lewis graduated in May 2020 with a degree in molecular, cellular and developmental biology. She also worked in the Education Abroad office as a marketing intern.听