Timeless: A Reflection on My Time in Europe and What to Take Away From It
Written by Connery January 4, 2016
My flight from Copenhagen to Chicago... Miss Europe already
Czech Republic Countryside... Kinda hard to beat
Food for thought on booking with your favorite hostel. The more you know
Netherlands in September. Winning
A quick trip to Greenland, while in Copenhagen.
These past 4 months: from studying in Italy to traveling to the former East Bloc, to seeing the Refugee Crisis in Hungary first hand. It’s truly been an experience – one that is life-changing and life-enriching.
I could go on about how studying abroad was a great decision, but to be frank, BEING abroad is the life changing point. Yes, you’ll learn stuff in the classrooms, make connections with professors from around the world, and will hopefully learn a couple phrases of the native countries language, but when you’re a foreigner in a country where English is not the first language, you’ll begin to realize just how you can survive in a globalized world.
If you have the chance, go abroad. If you do it correctly, you’ll figure out who you really are. Not only that, but you’ll have experiences that you can’t pay for, and see things that you’ll potentially only see once. It’s truly an amazing experience, and being at CIMBA will help you discover so much about yourself, whether through LIFE, LEAP, or just all the traveling you will be doing. I cannot begin to express how grateful I am to have had this opportunity to not only study abroad, but to be abroad. So much was taught to me by simply traveling, and so many close friendships were formed over a couple days of traveling together and through conversations. What lies before me in the game we call life, I have no idea. But I do know that I will be back in Europe soon, and what I learned over these past 4 months has forever changed who I am for the better.
Until we meet again,
Connery
“No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow.” Lin Yutang
Blogger: Connery, Western Michigan University
