Why You Should Do A Year Abroad

I know I keep harping on about my year abroad and I promise I'll stop soon, but I just get extremely overexcited about the things I love and enjoy, so I feel the intense need to share my experiences. Additionally, before I went abroad, I devoured as much online content about moving to a different country as I could get my hands on, as I wanted to be as prepared as physically possible. So, if I am able to incite inspiration or ideas amongst anyone thinking about undertaking a year abroad or just about to do so, then I consider my job done.

I've said it once and I'll say it again, my year abroad has been the most exciting, exhilarating and transformative year of my existence. The list of things I learnt about myself, other people, other cultures and other places is exhaustive and if I could do it all over again, I would in a heartbeat. In this post I want to share my perspective on the year abroad / living abroad to shed light on the positive (and negative!!) aspects and encourage anyone reading this to really consider doing it, if at all feasible.

The prospect of moving away is a scary one. I can wholeheartedly vouch for that as, before my year away, I had never moved away from home except for University but that was very much in the same country and a straight, albeit long, drive down the M4. Hardly an adventure. You're actively putting yourself in an unfamiliar environment which can feel unnatural and extremely daunting. It will always be a challenge, however, it is a challenge well worth taking as you will discover a plethora of things that otherwise just would not be available to you in your everyday life.

Personally, I would describe my year abroad as a wholly positive experience. I recognise that I am extremely fortunate to be able to do so, as it can sometimes be a little more tricky, depending on the situation. However, what I will say is that even if you don't absolutely love your year abroad, you will learn so much more from that than you probably would if it was all sunshine and rainbows. Whenever I had a little wobble from things such as homesickness, lack of confidence and just generally feeling a bit overwhelmed (and these are all totally normal things to feel!), I taught myself how to turn these things into positivity and how to tackle these issues so as to comprehend myself better and encourage situations that would pull myself out of these struggles, for example, by allowing homesickness to remind me how fortunate I am to have incredible family and friends who are worth missing. I can now take that ability everywhere I go.

Lastly (this is the last tangent, I promise), it is crucial to say that there will be moments that are a bit more difficult. We are human beings and ultimately, there is only so much pressure that we can take. It is incredibly normal to go through these negative periods too, and oddly enough, there seems to be so much taboo surrounding this. From things such as homesickness to imposter syndrome, feeling overwhelmed and language difficulties, there are things that can act as challenges when you live abroad. Social media can also be the devil in this situation, as you may find yourself comparing your experience to the portrayal of other people's experiences online, but what you must remember is that this is a highlight reel of someone's life and I can guarantee that they will be having little wobbles here and there too, but these won't be plastered all over your feed, naturally. If you find yourself going through a rough patch, ensure that you prohibit yourself from scrolling and talk it out with close friends that you trust and your family so they can comfort you and guide you in an uplifting way. Remember, a person's social media is a highlight reel.

Here are a list of reasons why you should do a year / live abroad :

1. You can learn a new language / refine your current language skills

The best way to learn a language is to move to the country and immerse yourself in the culture. As someone who is learning a language at University, I can personally confirm the truth of the above statement. When you're living in a country with a language different to your mother tongue, you're actively rewiring your ears and brain to carry out your daily life using a completely different set of words and sounds. Even if you're not speaking, you're consuming so much information in that language - from billboard signs to instructions/ingredients on food packaging, from shop signs to eavesdropping the conversations of a passerby that you subconsciously develop a level of fluency that you just wouldn't get by staying in England. You're also much more likely to develop a better accent as you interact with natives (at work, in class or in restaurants or shops etc.) as you're attuning your ear (and your mouth!) to speak like a native.

2. You will meet some incredible people 

When you move abroad, you will meet people with whom you would never otherwise have crossed paths with. That, I find, such a strange thought, as some of the people I have met during my year abroad will remain friends for life and have helped shape my entire experiences for the better. Whether studying or working, you will meet people that inspire you, make you laugh, challenge you to think differently and most importantly, you will learn more about different cultures and behaviours through these individuals.

3. You will become more resilient

Resilience is a real asset to anyone's personality as it's a characteristic that will allow you to become mentally stronger and able to take more on. It's always easy to give up on something or to quit the second things get slightly trickier, however, by going abroad, you're almost forced to stick it out and ride out any waves of negativity that come your way. It's not as though you can just pack up and leave if you're not loving it. This will teach you how to be more resilient and therefore how to have a better threshold when it comes to your comfort zone.

4. Your confidence will dramatically improve

By pushing yourself out of your comfort zone, you're effectively forcing your body and mind to go through things that are synonymous with being difficult and challenging and therefore, are things you normally avoid. However, when you challenge yourself, you will learn how to cope and overcome these situations, which will lead to a surge in your confidence. Whether it be self-confidence or confidence in a particular skill i.e. a language, the self development you get from this is well worth pushing yourself for.

5. You will find out a lot about yourself 

Self discovery is an amazing journey to go on and I personally believe you have to understand yourself inside out before you can attempt understanding anyone else. I also think it's much harder than we think to fully know ourselves inside out. By putting yourself through as many different types of experience as possible, you are able to analyse how you respond to various situations and therefore better decipher if anything needs to change.

6. You'll become a more tolerant individual

By meeting people of different cultures and interacting with a different way of life, you will learn to appreciate these differences for what they are and become more compassionate, empathetic and understanding. All these things will encourage you to be more tolerant of cultural differences and also just human beings in general. You're likely to have the patience of a saint once you've come back home after a year of integrating into a totally new culture, which, again, strengthens your maturity as an individual. 

7. You'll become more empathetic

Empathy is an incredibly important quality to possess if you want to be a kinder person. By living abroad, you become easier not just on yourself, but on other people because of the new perspective you gain. With moving away from home comes a certain level of independence and maturity, which encourages you to think of others more and to keep a peripheral perspective on things going on around you.

8. You'll get a new taste for adventure

The travel bug certainly does exist and it will come for you the moment you step off the plane/train. When you experience more, going back to not doing so will seem like a massive step back in your personal growth and will quite frankly seem a little dull. You'll crave the excitement of seeing things for the very first time or having a new story to tell, so don't expect your travels to end after your time abroad.

9. You will gain a new perspective on life / places / people

There are a lot of people out there who don't seem to have a peripheral vision. People whose minds are more narrow-minded than open and therefore, struggle to see things from a different perspective. Although I am still young and know that I have so many more things to experience in life, I believe it's such a shame to not have the capacity to see things in a different light and to just stick to what you know.  However, I am also very conscious of the fact that not everybody is the same and I absolutely never want to judge anyone for deciding to take a different path in life than my own. But from experience, I will say that living abroad or even just living elsewhere will broaden your perspective as you're able to see how people of different cultures live their lives, and this can have a profound impact on your perspective. This, in turn, will give you a much deeper insight into life and will have an impact on how you decide to live your own.

10. You will have amazing stories to tell

It's very difficult to have anything interesting to say if you don't do much with your time. You don't even necessarily have to go abroad to be able to have fun stories to tell, it's just about getting out and spending your time in various ways that will allow you this. However, by going abroad you're more susceptible to funny experiences with cultural differences, language barrier and just generally having to integrate into a new way of life. The conversation around the dinner table will be much richer and much more entertaining with these types of stories being thrown around.

11. You will learn more about what you want to do later on in life

If you go abroad to complete a placement or internship, the chances are that exposing yourself to a certain workplace will confirm whether you do or don't want to pursue that specific career. Experience is key and it can be incredibly exciting to work somewhere and discover that's the path you want to take in life. If it goes the other way and your placement putts you off that industry, that is also such a valuable lesson to learn.

12. You will learn how to fend for yourself and become completely independent

University is a good stepping stone for this and is a time where independence comes flourishing for most. Going abroad takes it that one step further as you will experience different, niche scenarios that will strengthen your independence and ability to fend for yourself. No more phone-calls to mum asking how to cook rice.

13. You will teach yourself how to overcome challenges

As I mentioned previously, going away will be a challenge in itself. You will come across hardships along the way, but how you learn, grow and develop from them is crucial here. From challenges at work, problems with your landlord or day-to-day issues with cultural difference and navigation, you'll gradually learn how to overcome these issues and therefore be more well-equipped to handle any similar problems in the future.

14. You'll learn to appreciate your family more

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder and boy am I no stranger to that. As incredible as it is meeting new people and making new friends during your time abroad, it really is your home roots that have shaped who you fundamentally are and will therefore affect your experience, in a good way! It's very easy to take your family and home comforts for granted when you are always around them, but when you jet off to the other side of the world, it reminds you how lucky you are to have them supporting and encouraging you, waiting for you to come back so you can be reunited once again. It's an amazing feeling.