Reply #22: A chance to live overseas? [View All]

[Lydia Leftcoast]

DO IT!

It doesn't really matter what country it is. Living in another culture will open you up intellectually and emotionally in ways that you never dreamed possible. You will have some incredible down times as culture shock hits, but coping with that is an enriching and useful experience in the end, too.

You will be a different person when you come back

I taught for seven years at a college that sent dozens of students on study abroad programs in six countries every year. Attending the "debriefing" sessions afterward, I never encountered even one student who regrettted going. Almost all of them rated the experience of living in Europe, Asia, or Latin America as the high point of their lives so far.