My one piece of advice for University of Wisconsin-Madison students: go abroad. And don’t just go abroad for three weeks in the summer and pretend you’re doing charity work in Costa Rica. Don’t just go abroad for a semester and take an introductory language course where you’ll forget everything, because you’re drunk the entire time. Go. Abroad. Find a place you think seems interesting and go there for an entire academic year. Go abroad and really commit to being abroad.
This is the best advice I can give to any student not graduating this May. Studying abroad is possibly one of the best experiences one can have as a college student. Living in a world dramatically different from the one we’re familiar with is fulfilling in so many ways and it’s rare that the opportunity to take advantage of this is so accessible. We’re lucky to have an impressive college of study abroad opportunities too. Take advantage: go abroad.
The amount of time people spend abroad makes a huge difference in how their experience will shape them. Based on personal experiences I can say that studying abroad for a year has an undeniable impact, and I know the full impact of my experience would have been thoroughly diminished had I returned after only one semester. When people leave the country and go abroad, they have to make inevitable and typically bigger adjustments than they initially expect. Culture shock, linguistic change, jet lag, new systems of government, banking and education. are all things they contend with when they’re out of the American element. Acclimation easily takes a full semester’s worth of time. Leave when that semester is done and people are leaving just as they’re adjusted and ready to get going into society.
The second semester of a year abroad gives people the chance to dive head first into a new way of life. They’re acclimated to the differences they discovered throughout the first half of the year abroad and the second semester is time to bloom. If people are in a place where the local language is something other than English, they’re more adept at speaking it, even if they came in fluent. Students will make friends more easily, possibly find a job or internship and move about more like a local rather than a tourist.
Go abroad for a year and not just a semester and you gain not just new experiences, but also a new home. Living abroad is not just about taking advantage of new things to improve yourself, but also to become part of a new community and learn to love it for all its positive and negative qualities.
But there is clearly a resistance to going abroad among students. One of the most common arguments I hear from people who choose not to go abroad is they have neither money nor time. Lies, I say! Lies! Here’s the thing—there is a program for every individual based on interests, major, linguistic abilities and so on. It doesn’t matter if you’re majoring in business and are interested in medieval cathedrals or art history with a focus on modern Korean art. There is something for you whoever you are. Just go for a year.
To hell with the money. If students are going to go into debt for anything, go into debt for education and make living abroad a part of that debt. At some point you will be out of debt. You’ll forget the money. You’ll get jobs and make that money back. The experiences and the life changes you will make going abroad will stay with you forever. They’ll change your perspectives on the world, how you move through space, think about life and go into the future. The money can be brought together, somehow and trust me, it will be worth it however it’s collected.
Don’t worry about time. Don’t worry about your major. Don’t worry about money. Don’t fear change and don’t fear cultural barriers. Go abroad. Force yourself to experience life from the perspective of others. Try your best to learn a new language. Take advantage of experiences you’ll never, ever get otherwise.
My advice to you all: skip Mifflin. Go abroad.
Michael is a senior graduating May 2014 and majoring in history and German. He studied abroad in Freidburg, Germany for one year. Please send all feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
