Before I went to Oxford, I asked current and former ACU students about going on Study Abroad. The two answers I got were exclamations on how amazing it is and also regret about not going. And I, after having just gone through it, can confirm that it is spot on my life I will always look back on with wonder.
Oxford is a beautiful city with buildings 400 years older than my country. Being able to study in such a literary and academic place has opened me up to how it should feel to learn and grow. Learning should not just be about getting a paper turned in or trying to stay away during class. It should be a welcoming of new ideas and betterment of oneself. And learning, as teacher after teacher will tell you, does not have to only happen in the classroom.
I learned how to have some proper tea in London, to stay cool on the hot sands in Cairo, to admire the new architecture in Barcelona, to appreciate different cultures in Istanbul, to learn the trails of the Highlands in Scotland, and to do as the Romans do in Rome.
To say Oxford has changed me is an understatement. To say how though, is a tougher matter. The best way I can describe it is from the actions of Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau went to the woods to live so that he would not “when he came to die, discover that he had not lived.” I went to Oxford for the same reason. And I have discovered that my world was small before, but now my heart lies all over it. God bless His wonderful creation.
