Getting started in a new place with new people can be incredibly stressful. For those students who may be feeling a bit lost, here are some words from an alumnus who once was where you now are…
“An exchange year is something very exciting and influential. However, when you go over there, you should not expect this to be the best and most fun year of your life, but that it might be an a little challenging and exciting year, in which you will learn many things that you would never learn back home, and after which you might see things from a different perspective. For that you have to be open and willing to learn. But if you do that, you will have a great year and you will come home and be a lot more tolerant and a lot wiser than those that haven’t had the experience. You don’t have to be a great English-speaker, or a super intelligent and independent person to be ready for this, just open-minded. Maybe you’ll come back loving the US, or maybe you’ll come back despising it, that depends on your experience, but for sure you will learn for your life and change. It is totally recommendable to embark on this adventure, and I would certainly do it again if I had the time.” – Mara, Germany