Once Upon a Dream… | Study Abroad with The University of Alabama

It’s been officially one month since I returned from participating in the UA in Oxford faculty led study abroad program.

An evening of High Table at Worcester College with some of the most fabulous people. (Funny side note: I don’t like champagne LOL)

Thinking back, it feels like it was a dream. How else can I explain that I got the chance to ride on a river cruise up and down the Lake Siene as the Eiffel Tower was sparkling for the first time of the evening?

First glimpse of the glowing Eiffel Tower upon returning from the river cruise of the Lake Siene.

It was bittersweet feeling – returning home; however, I was excited to return to family and friends who I missed while I was gone.

After having been home for a month now, I thought it was finally time to reflect and write my last blog post about the most amazing summer of my life.

Pure happiness while viewing the sunset at Port Meadow in Oxford, England

There are a lot of people who return from studying abroad as a “Changed Person.” I am not sure if that was the exactly the case for me. I like to think that Studying Abroad and Traveling the world this summer didn’t change me as much as it allowed me to grow and develop as a person. I discovered that dreams do come true, they just don’t come free. You must work hard, but that is what life is all about. I never would have believed when I started college that I would be able to take and complete, two 300 level classes over a 3 and ½ week time span. Let alone have the opportunity to travel the UK and Europe for a month during the summer.

The Bodleian Library – One of the oldest libraries in Europe.

A few pieces of advice future students who are wanting to study abroad:

Practice patience. Things are going to go not according to plan. That’s why it’s called a plan – it has to be flexible. You can’t control everything, but you can control your reactions. It will all work out eventually, and most likely, it won’t even matter after the fact.
Be open to new things and new experiences. This is coming from a very organized, neat freak, who likes to know and plan everything ahead of time. Some of my favorite experiences on this trip are things we just randomly decided to do last minute.
Enjoy every single minute. Traveling the world is often a once in a life-time experience. So, no matter what it is your worried about, let it go. Be in the moment. You only get 86, 400 seconds in a day, and it is impossible to get a single one of them back, so don’t waste them.