I suppose I should start by explaining why it is that I want to go abroad. There are various reasons as to why. There is the practical reason. Which is quite a long one. Back in February when I decided to go on this little adventure several various things fell through. I had tried to become an RA. That fell through. All of my friends had gotten places and apartments lined up so I couldn't really jump on any of their bandwagons. I didn't really want to live in the dorms again and I didn't really want to find a place of my own. This is right around the time the idea for going abroad came into my head. I also figured that junior year was really the last year to do it. Senior year is about mopping things up and is a time to look at graduation rather than going somewhere else. At least from my point of view.
At first it was only going to be for the spring semester. I was planning on living in the dorms one semester and then I was looking at going to Cork, Ireland in the spring. My brother Chris, who had studied abroad in France, told me to see if there were any year long programs I would be interested in. This is when I found out about the UK Exchange program. It sounded too good to be true but when I started doing rough estimates on cost, it looked like it would cost just the same as living in Cork for a semester.
At first I had settled on the University of Hull but that fell through. However, my study abroad adviser recommended that I look into the University of Birmingham. I fell in love with the idea immediately. Mostly because it is closer to what I wanted to study and experience. This being Stratford-upon-Avon and Shakespeare. I had taken a Screening Shakespeare course and have fallen in love with his works. Hamlet especially.
Practical reasons aside, there are other reasons as to why I wanted to study abroad. A lot of my mentors back home have mentioned that I should look into studying abroad during my college years. They told me that it is easiest to travel when one is a student rather than later in life. Junior year is really the perfect time to do so and right now with my life I am looking for something different.
I love college. I love my friends. All of them. But I have grown tired of the same old grind. College isn't that exciting for me anymore. It has lost its sense of wonderment. With each new semester, I know that I'm going to have a paper within three or four weeks and I know that I am going to have about two weeks to write it and usually said paper will be five to six pages long. Even when I have multiple papers to write it never feels like a challenge. I know that sounds like an arrogant thing to say but it's the truth. I have never really stressed too much about writing a paper or at least I don't stress about it anymore. There was a time but that was when I was fresh in the game.
Right now, I am in search of a change. I need something that is totally different than what I am used to. I also have been wanting to go on an adventure and this feels like it will be a grand quest. I am just tired of things being the same. I need something new. And if this whole study abroad experience is a failure, well... least I tried.
People have asked me why I've been doing this or if I'm concerned about going abroad or how much its going to cost and if I've truly planned ahead. I remember one person told me that this whole idea sounded too good to be true. Maybe it is, but I'm not going to worry about those things. I am not going to worry about how expensive this adventure is going to be or if this might just be one massive failure. I'm not going to worry about the "what ifs" because I've come to find that those concerns just get in the way of a situation and cause much unneeded stress.
By the way, Teddy Solberg still owes me a sandwich.
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