Why should all students study abroad?
I cannot imagine how well it would be received, I fear i may have become slightly too philosophical….
I have had the unusual blessing in my life of being a dual national, changing countries and traversing continents. While doing so, reaping all the benefits and hardships of discovering, learning and assimilating different social contexts and placing myself effectively within these differing circumstances. Such a challenge starts to develop certain values in your life, which many times I find forge your ethos. This being merely the case of a life experience, which shapes and forms you simply on the merits of travel and survival. It is evident that these adventures have their merits, whether they lie in developing your physical agility or in developing the psychological dexterity and perception which is called upon you to demonstrate.
One could only imagine how defining the experience of placing yourself productively, even more so academically within these different societies. Setting a different stage for you, one that denies you of comfort and habit, one that forces you to accept your role within it and comes knocking at your door. I see the study abroad programs as a rewarding opportunity to challenge your own mental status quo, in other words to provoke your mind and challenge you to rid yourself of your own upbringing’s pre-dispositions and assumptions. It forces you to transform yourself as a single atomic entity in your new environment that evaluates and judges every aspect of your efforts and gives you the opportunity to thrive on it. An opportunity to set yourself on new foundations, more involved with your personal aspirations rather than a strike of chance dictating a streamlined existence, where one simply reacts to oncoming needs or situations.
I believe that all these somewhat distant notions from a study abroad program are what formulate the absolute cusp of self and scientific awareness one gains through them. Hence, when faced with the simple question why should every student study abroad, I could only stress in so many words, that I wish all students could manage to undertake such a task and finish it without fearing the prospect or absolute change and the uncertainty it harbors, while awaiting for the absolutely unknown to take place, knowing only it will be for their benefit and character building. It provides you with an array of challenges that retain their value through the course of your life, but also endow you with a few hints of wisdom that can truly help you build your studies with even better prospects. Learning to deal with countries, people and organisations, teaching you how to communicate with them and extract your opinions and knowledge, is the outline of everyday life, let alone academia. It is the distinguishing attribute between technical specialisation and an education and it helps you get there.
It is these uncharted experiences that await students endeavouring on such a program that I expect to retain fondly long after, rather than what many might imagine as an extra resume highlight. I would say: Do it to learn, to change, to gain character, to gain strength, to broaden your aspect, to better your thoughts, to face your fears, to discover what you like, to see how very different and very similar we are, to compete, to compare, to develop academically but most importantly to quench your unsettled mind.
