Expect the Unexpected

For seven weeks of my summer, I spent my time traveling across Europe with sixteen art and design students, some close friends, others complete strangers. Together, we got to know bits and pieces of not one, but three new cultures, all completely different from each other and all completely unfamiliar to us. We got to experience the pub culture of Oxford, the rich music history of Vienna, and the famous nightlife of Florence and Rome as well as many other mini adventures along the way. The beauty of England, Austria, and Italy had so many sweet little lessons to teach me both about the countries themselves and about myself, but some of the most life changing of these were taught to me by my fellow travelers.

I went into the trip expecting to find complete independence, and it excited me. Anything from grocery shopping and exploring new neighborhoods, to planning a weekend trip to Paris for my friends and I. All was going as I expected until I tested positive for COVID-19 five days before the group was supposed to fly from Austria to Italy for the last leg of our trip.

So, now I had to figure out how to obtain the medication I needed as well as my food for the next week all without leaving my quarantine room in a country where I didn’t speak the language, and I couldn’t have done any of it without my friends. They took care of everything from picking up my countless delivery orders from the front door and offering to bring gelato home for me to simply FaceTiming me to make sure I wasn’t too lonely. They always made sure I had what I needed no matter how far out of their way they had to go. Even the most unexpected of people reached out to make sure I was taken care of.

This experience taught me two things. The first being that it’s okay to need help sometimes. I came into this trip seeking full independence because that was what I had always viewed as a successful life, one that wasn’t dependent on anyone but God. But having no other choice but to depend on my friends showed me that I have to put pressure on myself to find that complete independence I was seeking and that I can always ask for help when I need it.

The second thing this experience taught me is the importance of taking the time to appreciate your immediate surroundings. Throughout the entire trip, we spent our days trying to see as many things as we could, and we never really stayed anywhere very long. But, while in quarantine, I still had an assignment for my photography class due, so I had to get extra creative to find the little moments I could capture from my quarantine room. The photos I took during this time ended up being some of my favorites from the entire trip because of the time I had to take to notice the beauty of the things that had been right in front of me for weeks. My favorite of these is the photo of the window that was across from my living room window. I had noticed it before, but taking the time to find the perfect framing for the photo helped me see the full beauty of it and its surroundings.

Studying abroad was truly one of the best experiences I’ve had in my life so far. If you ever have the opportunity to participate in a study abroad experience, I highly suggest that you do. Not only did I have the most fun I have ever had, but I also came home with some incredibly valuable lessons to implement into my daily life. This is something that everybody should experience.