By Grace Admire, Staff Writer
Studying abroad was the best thing I ever did, even if it ruined my life a bit. Last August, before I embarked on my four-and-a-half-month long stint in Germany, I found myself walking across the quad and thinking to myself, I’ve really made a home here. I think I’m gonna miss this place while I’m gone. And though there were a few moments where I found myself missing Regis (mostly my friends), my memory of that feeling ended up being used as a reminder that there would still be something for me here when I came back. While I was gone, I had worried a lot that things would be different when I came back. In a lot of ways, they were—not because my surroundings and friends were so different, but because I was so different.
The readjustment process came with a lot of grief. They tell you that when you study abroad, you’ll miss and grieve the people you met there and the deep bonds you form with those around you. I miss the bliss of not knowing what I was missing out on before living in a walkable city with high-quality, cheap food and accessible public transportation. I miss speaking German and feeling proud of myself when people asked me for help in the city I lived in, and I could confidently answer in a foreign language, as if I weren’t American at all. I miss all the little things about Marburg that made it feel like home, an ocean away from everything I ever knew. But no one told me I was going to grieve the way I used to feel about my life back home when I got back. When I returned to life in Colorado, depression hit me like a truck. I got a gnarly stomach bug (E. coli, probably) days upon arriving home and was still recovering from a torn tendon in my ankle that made walking horrendously painful. Even seeing my friends who I love so deeply didn’t make me feel better. And I felt this way for weeks.
Nearing the end of the semester, things have ebbed and flowed in the level of bearableness for me. But, as I took a position writing the Highlander, I started thinking about the students abroad this semester, and how they may, soon, experience the exact same things. So I sought out to find some of the best answers from other students who have gone abroad. For starters, here is a bit of what they said:
65% of respondents claimed their readjustment process was moderately challenging to difficult and overwhelming, whereas 35% stated their transition was smooth and seamless. So, if you’re studying abroad now, there’s a pretty good chance that you’ll be totally fine.
People found themselves taking refuge in a myriad of support systems: some relied on family and friends, some relied on long-distance support from friends abroad, some used substances, and one respondent even said they were only helped by “me, myself and I”.
Respondents studied abroad between one semester and 10 years ago, and of all of the responses, 40% stated that they haven’t fully recovered from their experiences abroad. The others fell in a range from no time at all to 6-12 months.
This data may look a little grim, but oddly, not a single respondent regretted any level of their experience abroad. Like everyone else, despite the many challenges I have faced, I wouldn't change my experience for the world. Even if I returned home feeling in ruins, the necessity of picking up the pieces forced me to focus on the relationships that really mattered and double down on figuring out what was actually important for me. I recognize now that studying abroad (not just for me, but also for my peers) is a blooming season in which we reap the benefits of incredibly rich memories and unforgettable, invaluable life experiences, and afterwards comes time to rest, recover, and to sow seeds for the next adventure. To those of you who might be thinking of going abroad, do it. To my friends I’ve been blessed to make here in Colorado and abroad, you make my life so much sweeter. And to Denver International Airport, let’s hope we see each other soon.