I have been a student abroad since my first year of university. This goes back to september of 2012.
What this means is that, at that age, I had to leave my country, my family, my friends, my routines. And get on board for an unpredictable voyage, where I would have to build everything again. I would have to adapt myself to the new environment, I would have to find new friends, I would have to immerse in a new culture. All these are, at the same time, terrifying and marvelous.
At the core of this voyage, something guided me. The search for a better education, the discovery of the person I am, the preparation of a better life, the exposure to more opportunities.
It is common that we fear the unknown at some point. I am no exception. At first, I dreaded all the difficulties that will go with the new adventure. But in my case, it was not a complete mystery since I found help from some people who did the same path as I did.
I will share some points that I learned on the way.
See the unknowns as a way to grow.
We like to get too much used to things we know as it gives us a sense of certainty in the outcomes of the things we undertake. But I think that when young, it is more important to optimize for growth, and this means that to go out there and face those unknowns. Sure the outcomes are not certain, but if done properly, you will always come out strong, with more knowledge.
After completing my final year of high school, I had the opportunity to go for a study in Morocco. It was an intensive program dedicated to taking in as much as possible of mathematics, physics and chemistry. I never heard about such a program before. In fact, in my country we don't have any program alike.
So the question was, would it be worth it. I knew my love for those subjects for sure, but I had no idea about the outcomes before getting on board. To my great pleasure, this opened many doors to me. I took it as a challenge, and I confess it was hard, but it was really worth it. It changed me to the best. The work ethics. High achievable expectations. The methodology of work. Great aquaintances. And various other cool things.
Learn everything you can about the culture of the new place.
Nothing is more enriching than learning new ways of seeing the world. I like open-minded people. They are tolerant and they understand the importance of not seeing views as absolute. Immersing in the new culture shows how the same matter can be thought of differently accross places. In fact, there can be as many views as there are countries on a given topic. Of course, there are some things which are shared the same way accross the world, like playing sports (think about how the football brings people together during the world cup).
Engaging with locals is enriching and refreshing. It gives us different perspective. And this leads to the next point.
Expand your network
Do I even need to stress this much. The value of networking is invaluable. Family, friends, mentors, think about how they make you a better person. There is this quote of Joe Apfelbaum I like very much:
Behind every succesful person, there are many succesful relationships.
Start building your network as early as possible. And be relentless about it. In fact every new relationship can take you a step further towards your ultimate goal. Cherish your relationships. Give your best and never see it in a one way. Reid Hoffman put it better:
Your network is the people who want to help you, and you want to help them, and that's really powerful.
A good network is worthy of millions and even more. Don't play short on it. And what an occasion it is to connect with people of your new place.
Learn about the values of being alone. On your own.
Some people feel at ease with this whereas some are not. Being on your own is not always easy. But learning about its virtues, it can take you a long way. I have a complete take on this on my Quora profile, if you are interested you can find it here: On the value of learning to be alone.
To finish, all this is good, but it is dangerous to get on board if you can't afford it financially. Of course, situations are different and there is no fit-all answer for everyone. But if you can, prepare the trip mindfully and make sure it won't make you miserable.
And it can be important to stay true to yourself as long as your discoveries do not affect you negatively. For example, engaging too much in the foreign culture can lead to unpredictable outcomes. Usually, in the process of discovering oneself, it can happen that we agree more with some foreign principles than the ones of our own. This can create some duality as it can become hard to hold some thoughts you had before. But is it not true that any principle which we don't hold enough can be a burden to our happiness?
This is the end of this post, and sure, there is much more to going abroad than what is summarized here. Thanks for reading and do not hesitate to share it.