Happy New Year to all of my lovely readers! I know it's a bit late to be saying Happy New Year, but as most of you may know, I started a Youtube channel recently and I've been going crazy taping and editing videos, and it takes A LOT more time than blogging, but I've missed writing so here I am :)
I wanted to share with you something that has also been taking up a lot of my time lately and that has been submitting my application for Go Global which is the program that facilitates student exchanges around the world. I'm going to be totally honest with you, this process was very stressful for me, mostly because I'm an over-thinker.
Why I Was Scared
First and foremost, it is extremely scary thinking about going on a semester abroad and leaving all your friends and family. I'm very close with my family (closer than most) and it would be so difficult being away for so long. I also am in a serious relationship and it would be extremely hard to see each other for the five months I would be away. As well as I'd be leaving one of my best friends, Eilish, for a whole semester! Even though this concept of leaving was scary, I knew I still had to do it and I would regret it forever if I let the fearing of leaving stop me. I reminded myself that I'm so lucky to live in this day and age where I can Skype or FaceTime the people I love from anywhere in the world, so it wouldn't be as bad since I could see them and talk to them whenever I wanted. So I convinced myself... to take the leap.
Figuring Out Where I Wanted To Go
The next step was to figure out where I wanted to go, and I thought this part would have been easier, but I can assure you, IT WASN'T! You all know that I love traveling and in the grand scheme of things, I would have been extremely happy to study anywhere in the world on exchange, but I had 2 top contenders for where I wanted to go... Europe and Australia. Specifically in Europe I wanted to go to Paris or Italy and in Australia I wanted to live in Brisbane or Melbourne. Europe and Australia are completely different in pretty much every single way, so when I was trying to choose, I felt like if I chose one, I would lose a lot of potential experiences with the other place and THAT'S WHAT MADE IT SO HARD! I didn't know which experiences I craved more. I asked for advice from so many people, and I just felt very stuck, I had no idea what I wanted to do and nobody could make this decision, but me.
I visited the Go Global office at my university almost every day the week the application was due. I talked to many women that have done Go Global and they reassured me that going on this adventure will be an adventure of a lifetime. So after contemplating and contemplating about where I want to go, I broke it all down. So when I go on exchange it will be second semester of my third year which will be January 2020 - May 2020. So in Australia, its going to summertime their since the seasons are opposite to here in Canada. And if you know me I LOVE THE HEAT! So I thought that was a big plus. A downside to Australia is it ISNT EUROPE. I know that's obvious but I really wanted to get the most of my experience abroad and going to Paris or Italy would be a completely change in culture and that is exactly what I wanted. ALSO, since I love traveling, once I get to Europe... flying within Europe to the different countries is SO cheap! And on top of that, I also have a lot of my family that I haven't actually met before leaving in Czech. ANYWAYS, after hearing all that, I hope you can understand how hard this decision was for me and I didn't have a lot of time.
My Decision
So, after doing lots of thinking about it all... I made my decision. DRUM ROLL PLEASE... I chose AUSTRALIA!! Now I know that might come to a huge surprise after reading the paragraph above about everything that was going on in my mind, but here me out. I'm only 19 years old right now, and I've never lived on my own before because when I moved to Kelowna for school, my family moved here as well. So I've never been fully independent and living on my own before. So, when I go for my semester abroad, it will be my first time completely living on my own and being in a country that doesn't speak English as their primary language, is very scary for me, especially since most Europe universities don't offer on-campus housing. The idea of me having a class that ends at like 8pm at night and me trying to find my way back to my apartment in a city I've never been that speaks a different language is a little too big of a leap for me at this point in my life and I can admit that. Also, I love DOING things rather than just seeing them you know? I would rather go surfing and snorkelling and swimming rather than just seeing buildings. That's just me at this point in my life right now and I'm very happy with my choice as Australia.
The Waiting Game
So now that I've submitted my application, it's a waiting game for about a month to see if I got into the program. After all that thinking about where I wanted to go, I really hope I get into the program and go on this adventure of a lifetime and take you guys along for the journey as well! Thank you to all of you for all the tremendous support you give me on here and all of my social media channels, you guys are seriously the best group of people ever!
Until next time!
Love,
Alexis
The Babe Abroad