Things that are exciting about this photo:
- It's taken with my brand new webcam.
- My tutus look pretty with the light.
- You can see my angel wing.
- The snowman mug is filled with delicious coffee.
Just this morning I moved out of the dorms where I have lived for the past two-ish years. I won't be living there until January. For the next four months I will be living in London. This is even more exciting than the things that are exciting about the above photo. Studying abroad is exciting simply because you get to live, study, and (in my case) work in another country. For me though, it is exciting for more reasons than that. Studying in London will be the first time I have lived away from the Northern Virginia area since before I was one. That's twenty years living in the same 30 minute radius. I even went to college in NoVA (yes I moved out of the house but only to a campus twenty minutes away).
I have never really left my comfort zone. London is going to throw me so far out of my comfort zone that (hopefully) I won't be able to find it again. I have a friend who, having studied abroad twice, advises me to go abroad with zero expectations. For the most part I am taking her advice. I have no expectations about my flat, whatever friends I may or may not make, the parties I'll go to, how much I'll get to travel/see, or my internship experience. I'm leaving that to luck and hoping to make the best of whatever is thrown my way.
But... I can't go with no expectations at all.
I expect to become independent.
I expect to learn to trust and rely on myself.
I expect to learn to cook (a little).
I expect to learn more about who I am as an adult.
I expect to successfully maintain long-term relationships with Boyfriend
and my good friends at home.
I expect to come away from this trip a better and more defined person.
I don't think these are unreasonable expectations. I thought I'd share them here so that when I return from London I can look back and mediate on how well these expectations worked out.
you enjoy yourself and Katie and I will be here when you return!
ReplyDeletethis post is basically my thought process in a nutshell. I am so good at overhyping things that when I'm inevitably disappointed it ruins the entire experience. For once I want to walk into a new experience with low expectations, maybe even no expectations (but considering how much I pontificate on pointless crap, I highly doubt that's possible ;). I think the few expectations you did list are really reasonable. All of them have to do with personal goals, not something grandiose involving other people like "I will meet the love of my life abroad" (although you already have a great guy) or "I will meet my best friend the first week there and we'll go out in this adorable tea dresses" haha. I think usually where my expectations fall short is in what I expect of other people, but through the trials of the past year weren't fun to go through I did learn how to be more independent, self reliant, and realistic. I'm hoping I can continue to find myself. I guess my only real goal is to hopefully get closer to figuring out what I want to do with my life, maybe being thrown totally out of my element will help clarify things. Oh and I want to make at least one friend who will see Harry Potter at midnight with me haha
ReplyDeleteYour webcam photos are far better than mine. I look like such a dork in the few that I've taken, lol!
ReplyDeleteYou'll have a wonderful time abroad. To even not have any expectations would be difficult and yours are wonderfully realistic. Independence, yes, you will become independent. Stepping out of your comfort zone is scary but I am so happy that you are. There are so many people out in the world who don't and it is so sad that they chose not to. I am sure you will fall in love with London, beautiful city!
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