What this exchange year means to me

The success or completeness of this exchange year is not measured by the amount of historical places you visit or the fun activities you take part in or how many people you meet or even the new and exciting things you experience. It's measured in the internal growth and transformation that each student undergoes during our time abroad. We can see and do all there is to be seen and done, but if we have not changed or grown or learned, what is there to take away from this experience?

This exchange, for me personally, has been the most eye-opening, humbling, and self-realizing experience I have ever faced. I have learned so many things about myself.

For so long I have only used the eyes in my head to see the world around me, but now I have gained sight through eyes I now use to look inside of myself. These eyes have changed and somehow sharpened the ones I use to see the world and have shown me clarity, truth, and direction in my own being and in the life that lies ahead of me.

I have also learned to let go. For so long I have brooded over things that have happened in the past and I often clung to lost hopes and roads that had inevitable come to an end. I have learned to move on. Once you finish a book, you can read and reread it over and over again, but that will never change how the story is written or how it will end. Eventually you just have to put that book down and start a new one. And now, more than ever, I am excited to take my life each day at a time and begin writing the rest of my story.

I feel like in just 4 short months I have learned and become aware of so much, but I still have so much more progress to make. I can't wait to see what else this life has in store for me.

-E.