Can My Semester Abroad Be Over Already?
After you go through the application process and finally get accepted, you start telling people about how you are spending a precious 1/8 of your college experience in another country. If your experience is anything like mine, your parents will be asking how safe it is, your aunts and uncles will demand constant Facebook updates, and your friends will rant about how they wish they could visit. People who have gone abroad before will talk about the transformative nature of studying abroad. They will talk about how it completely changed their perspective on life, gave them more patience and understanding of other cultures, and was the greatest college experience one can have. When I was packing to leave on Christmas Eve, these were the thoughts going through my head. "I'm going to come back to the U.S. a completely different person that people won't even recognize me. I'm going to be so tan."
Within the first 36 hours of leaving my house that Christmas Eve, my flight had been rerouted four times, spent the night in the airport, lost my luggage, my accommodation had no record of me planning to arrive, lost a $600 deposit on housing, and knew absolutely no one in the city. At this time, the only thing I wanted was to be back in Ohio, sitting on the couch on Christmas Day and be with my family.
Looking back, that experience was my most challenging in any of my experiences abroad. At the time, I didn't think that anyone would understand what was going on in my mind. Now, I can clearly define this as culture shock. All of the prep classes, YouTube videos, and articles I read, could not prepare me for the reality which is physically going to another country. Everything was changing at once and I was not prepared. By the time I finally met other exchange students two days later, I was ready to call it quits. Talking with the other exchange students about how strange it was to be in Singapore finally pulled me back to reality. I was no longer "alone" and had people to share and reflect on everything with.
My point with this story is that culture shock will probably happen, and you won't be nearly as prepared as you think you are. Culture shock isĀ normal, and being ready to deal with it and face the uncertainty that it brings is essential. The best thing that I did for myself during those first few days was watching a Netflix movie one afternoon during a rainstorm. It brought me back to a place of familiarity. Additional to that, I continued to remind myself why I was so excited to be in Singapore. I visited the major tourist areas, toured my school, and drank a cold tea by the South China Sea. That initial culture shock passed, and I was able to really enjoy the rest of my time in Singapore. From then on, whenever I was feeling homesick, I would pull out my journal from the first few days and remind myself of why I was in Singapore.
I wanted to completely immerse myself in Singapore. I wanted to experience what it is like to live in another country for an extended amount of time. I wanted to make friends from around the world. Most of all, I wanted to prove to myself that I had it in me to live alone for four months. I wanted to grow more independent and discover more about myself with each new day in Singapore.
By the time my program was over, I was so thankful that I stayed in Singapore. Though I would continue to feel culture shock throughout my four months, I was able to have once-in-a-lifetime experiences that completely altered my view of the world experiences that I wouldn't have had if I let culture shock hold me back. I am extremely grateful for my time abroad.
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