Student Bloggers
Bye Georgetown!
Date
December 10, 2015
For starters, I have never left the country. Neither has anyone in my family, unless they have served in the United States armed forces. In my eyes, the world outside of the United States consists of CNN reports, foreign films, pictures from Google, and those sad, long charity commercials that pull on your heart-strings for about ten minutes. Needless to say, I am ready to actually experience the world with my own eyes. But I wasn’t always this eager.
When I first was accepted into Georgetown, I constantly heard the phrase “study abroad” as something I should be looking forward to as an undergraduate. Sophomore year, spring semester came and all my friends were applying to programs in Chilé, Spain, and Ecuador. Meanwhile, the ambiguity of what “studying abroad” meant halted me from even considering the option of living and studying somewhere other than Washington, D.C.
One day that spring, I talked to Colleen Roberts, my Georgetown Scholarship Program peer mentor, about her study abroad experience over coffee. She studied at University of the Western Cape in South Africa. She had a great time outside of the United States and told me that I should experience the world because it is much bigger than Georgetown University.
After a silent deliberation and a conversation with my academic dean, I figured why not leave the country.
I knew I was ready to start looking into study abroad programs once I embraced the idea that I would be okay with not knowing what to expect. And this excited me for the first time.
Now, I am a junior set to study at University of the Western Cape in January 2016. In November, I was awarded the prestigious Gilman International Scholarship to take care of travel expenses. My future life in South Africa is my motivation for finishing the semester strong.
Georgetown, I’ll miss you, but I rather not miss out on this life-changing opportunity.