I’ll be boarding a plane headed for Zaragoza, Spain

45 days from now, I’ll be boarding a plane headed for Zaragoza, Spain and embarking on a journey that, 45 days ago, I wasn’t sure I would be taking.

… What?

As an education major, I was told that studying abroad wouldn’t be a realistic option to pursue if I wanted to graduate in four years. I remember being a starry-eyed freshman sitting in my first advising session, and feeling the sinking disappointment that came from my adviser’s warning to me about studying abroad…

“I really appreciate your ambition, Emily. It comes in handy in the education field. But you have to take into account that you will already only have seven semesters to do what most students do in eight. You student teach during the spring of your senior year.”

“So… I shouldn’t get my hopes up about going abroad?”

“Probably not.”

… and that was that. To make a long story short, freshman and sophomore years went by with few bumps in the road and without much more discussion about leaving the country. This past summer, though, the winds of change rolled in and rocked my world in ways that I couldn’t have predicted, leaving me in one of the lowest emotional places I’ve ever found myself in. I was told by a number of people that it was time for me to do some soul searching, to re-discover my identity, and to fully pursue the things that I was most passionate about. The deeply-rooted yet inconvenient desire to study abroad resurfaced, and even though I promised my parents that I wouldn’t do anything stupid to get my hopes up, I went and had another discussion with my academic adviser.

By some miraculous twist of fate, I found myself both academically and financially able to afford a semester abroad. So here I am now – standing on the brink of what’s sure to be the biggest adventure of my 20 years of life.

I’m a different person than I was three months ago, when I started to reconsider studying abroad. At first, it occurred to me that running off to a place where nobody knows my name would be an excellent way to step away from the problems that have caused me so much hurt. As time has passed and my heart has healed, I’ve realized that my motives for going to Spain have changed drastically. I’m not running away from something, but rather I’m running towards something much greater. I’ve grown and changed as a person during these past few months in ways that have amazed me, and I know that going to Zaragoza is only going to help me grow even more into the person I’m supposed to become. Change begins when we leave our comfort zones, and leaving my home and loved ones behind for five months will definitely be out of my comfort zone. I’m terribly nervous, but the excitement I have for what’s to come is beyond what words can say.

45 days and counting…

[as of posting, it’s 25 days, 0 hours, and 42 minutes!!]

By Emily DeVries, Elementary Education Major, Spanish minor, from St. Charles, Illinois.  More posts to come!!