Now that I am back and settled in my home again, I can finally take a moment to go through all my thoughts and experiences about my trip to Spain. At the most basic level, I am (mostly) proud to say that I experienced every possible negative thing that could’ve happened when flying home from Madrid and can consider myself a truly seasoned flyer.
More than that, though, I really have grown so much. It’s not with very obvious things like “oh, I’m so much more outgoing” or “I am way better at time management!” but more along the lines of I just feel so much more aware of things. Being in a new country, by yourself, for the first time, with a group of kids that you do not know, is a lot. It was a lot for me. The first two weeks, I was very homesick—not for my home or anything like that, but for my family. My biggest things was wanting to share everything I did with my family, and that was a hard adjustment for me. However, I was still able to really enjoy everything I did and have no regrets about going for the month, even if I was homesick at the beginning. I navigated a new city on my own at times, asked for help in a second language, tried tons of new foods, met so many awesome people, and got to create a routine for myself! I think it will help so much when I return to school in the fall, because that sense of independence will have been developed while I was in Spain, and it’ll motivate me to push myself further than I had been before I studied abroad.
I am beyond blessed to say that I also have left this trip with some of the closest friends I’ve made in college so far. Being able to experience a new country with people and go through all the ups and downs of navigating new places has really created bonds with people who I never used to know. It’s amazing to have had the opportunity to create friendships like that. I miss my friends a ton, but I am soooo excited to see everyone again so soon in Tuscaloosa! We will all be having reunions and meetups again.
Since I studied Spanish while I was in Spain, my brain has been geared towards speaking Spanish first and then resorting to English if I can’t convey what I’m trying to say. That definitely translated the first day back when I was travelling in the States, as my first reaction to answering questions and thanking people was with a simple “Si” and “Gracias” which then prompted them to speak to me in Spanish when that wasn’t necessary. It was a funny experience, but it really showed me how much effort I had been putting into speaking Spanish while I was away.
Overall, this trip was life-changing in very subtle ways. I would 10000% recommend studying abroad to anyone and everyone, no matter how nerve-wracking it sounds or how many times you have or haven’t travelled before. You will learn more about yourself in that short period of time than a year of regular school could give you!