Growing up, one of the only college experiences that I heard from my parents was their study abroad trip. They still, to this day, refer to it as the best months of their lives. There was never a doubt in my mind that I wanted to go abroad. My parents have been training me for this since I was young. For starters I was put in a dual language class, which basically is elementary school taught in Spanish. Second I have been a trained traveler since birth, whether it is planes, trains or automobiles my family has spent many hours on all of them. Getting to college I knew it was my time to head out into the world all by my self. Now, the next step was figuring out when to go. Fall is football season and as an Alabama student you cannot miss out on that. Spring is my club sport’s season and missing out on a whole semester would mean serious bench time. That left summer. The hard part was finding the perfect time for it, I need to make money when I’m home, but I also want to get a full experience. Then I came across the perfect opportunity for me: 2 weeks working in a medical clinic in Granada, Nicaragua while earning UA credit! I applied and was lucky enough to get in. Currently I am sitting in my bed waiting to head to my flight tomorrow morning. At dinner I barely said a word, which is very unusual for me because I love to talk. I have a bunch of emotions running through my head. I’m beyond excited but nervous about messing up. What if my Spanish is not actually good enough? What if I have no idea how to continue a conversation? What if my host family doesn’t like me? I’m going into this hoping this will end well. I mean, I know it will be something my kids will never hear the end of, I just hope that I’m not too focused on doing everything right that I lose track of the experience. I am packed, hopefully with all my stuff, and I am going over everything we have learned in my class this pastsemester. This is no longer a pen and paper lecture, rather the classroom we all call the real world.
