Living abroad

I have always wanted to live abroad so when I applied to universities, I had to do some research on which university and country would be best for me. I had to consider; education, accommodation, food, weather, and so many more things however most importantly being away from my family and friends. After searching I applied to three universities and I got accepted into one of them.  After arriving at the university, I realized that living abroad is harder than I thought it would be. New people, a new language, and a new culture. I had to adapt to this life. At first, I isolated myself. I had so few interactions with people around me. My sentences became shorter and shorter.

I felt alone and unnoticeable, although there were a lot of people around me in my dorm and in my university. That was never my personality. I was a social talkative girl with my friends at home. living abroad changed my character. The new environment and new language made a big barrier between me and my social life.

months passed and I thought of going back home more than once. I used to cry thinking that this will be my life now. So the only solution was to push myself to make friends and try to engage with them in their language. At first, I would memorize the correct sentence and try to say it without showing any accent, once they realized I can speak the language, or at least I am trying they were so understanding and helped to correct my mistakes. I think they were also interested in me, my language, and my culture. They wanted to learn more about me as much as I wanted to learn about them and their culture.

I won’t say that everyone I met was understanding, some were not interested at all, some were making fun of my pronunciation mistakes, and some were racist. However, my goal was never to make everyone my friend.

Traveling and living abroad made me who I am now. A strong woman who is confident to say that she is afraid of new challenges but still says yes to trying and failing and trying again. a person who can recognize toxic people and stop them from affecting her decisions. A human who can express feeling fully, and always knows that there are new things to learn in this life.