In 37 days, it starts again.
I pack up my life and I move to the other side of the world.
My gap year in 2013 changed me. Living in Austria allowed me to see the rest of the world that was out there and gave me a hunger to want to experience it all. When I began university, I knew that I had to include a semester abroad in my degree, I just had to. I set my mind to it, worked hard, and now I'm almost ready to fly away again.
Destination: Burlington, Vermont, USA.
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| USA |
As a Bachelor of Nursing student, my one option to study abroad is at the University of Vermont in the United States of America. That suits me just fine. I was very close to going to the US instead of Austria at the end of high school, so I'm happy now that I get the chance to go.
This wasn't an impromptu decision. I began researching and enquiring about exchange when I first started nursing in February last year. By August last year I started setting up meetings to talk about how to go about actually applying and on the 29th December 2015 I officially submitted my application. It wasn't until the 22nd June 2016 that I had official written confirmation that I was going to the US. During that time, I very nearly gave up. It wasn't just a fact of time and that I was almost running out of it, but I had other obstacles to overcome. I was having trouble with some staff members that were making the process a lot more difficult than it needed to be. My dream was crushed the day I sent the email that I was no longer going on exchange. I had reached breaking point. I had no fight left in me. I knew that not going wasn't at all what I wanted and it was time to bring in the big guns. It's hard to describe the passion that is associated with studying abroad, but I'm lucky enough that I have someone very close to me who shares that passion. I'm not going to lie, my message to Cherine was full of desperation. I needed her to tell me that I would regret the decision not to go, that I could make this work, that I needed to just push a little more and I would get there. Always reliable, her reply did not disappoint. I said to her, "will I be able to live with myself if I choose not to go?". Her reply, "you won't, it's as simple as that", and that's all I needed. I pushed through. And now in 37 days I'll be flying out of Australia to spend the next five months in the USA.
I've been criticised for choosing to go abroad. It's exactly like when I went to Austria on exchange. The big problem for people? Money. It's because I'm 21 that they believe someone my age can't afford something as big as this, and they automatically jump to the conclusion that I'm a spoilt brat with rich parents who dish out as much money as I ask for. They couldn't be more wrong. My parents support me as much as they can, probably more than they can, but they're not rich, I'm not a brat, and I work my arse off to go after what I want. People don't understand that as a uni student, there are all kinds of scholarships and loans that you can apply for for overseas study. In addition to these, I work and save money to spend on travel and new experiences rather than a new car. I've balanced full time study, work, sport and a social life and worked hard to put myself in the position that I'm in now, and I'm ready to prove the critics wrong.
In a week and a bit I head to Sydney to get my visa and then I'm almost ready to go! I fly out of Brisbane on the 22nd August and won't leave America until the 15th January next year. After the semester ends I'm spending two weeks doing a Contiki tour and am going to be lucky enough to spend New Years at the Grand Canyon. I truly am lucky.
I'm bracing myself for the week and a bit before I leave when I will undoubtably start second guessing my decision and thinking "what the actual eff was I thinking, wanting to spend the next five months in a foreign country away from everyone and everything I know". It's part of the experience though. It's during those frustrating hours that you're trying to pack and reality finally sets in that you're leaving when these thoughts start. And then you get on the plane. That first time you land in another country is the most terrifying, exciting, amazing feeling that you'll come across, and one I cannot wait to experience again.
Until next post.
Adios Amigos.
Tyarna xx
