Currently, I\u2019m sitting at my gate at JFK airport, emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausted. Excited? Most definitely. Scared? Heck yeah. Not to sound pessimistic, but I cannot help myself from thinking that I was crazy to embark on such a journey thousands of miles away from my home. In my eyes, I\u2019m just a 20-year-old girl from a small island in the Caribbean with big dreams. From the day I decided to leave home for boarding school at age 16, I predicted that every year since then would be an adventure. Looking back on previous years, I can definitely confirm that, that prediction was correct. Studying abroad is not new to me. I had to adjust to the culture in the United States when I moved here for high school, then I adjusted to a different lifestyle in college, and here I am now- off to Oviedo, Spain. Everywhere I go, I take a little piece of the experience with me, which has made me stronger, smarter, and more grateful for the opportunities that present itself each year. When I was thinking about studying abroad, I read through what felt like thousands of blogs, trying to decide if this was something I actually wanted to do. The truth is everyone is different and everyone has a different experience but each of us brings something new and exciting to each adventure we embark upon. That is the most exciting part about studying abroad- each person, including myself, has a different identity but that\u2019s what makes life so precious and unique! There is so much beauty in speaking a new language, eating new food, and meeting new people. The different perspectives, the struggles, a new rhythm of life- each country has its own story to tell and I am SO excited to see what Spain is all about. I once came across this quote that said, \u201cIt is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.\u201d I hope to embrace these differences and challenge myself in the upcoming months. Espa\u00f1a, estoy lista!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Currently, I\u2019m sitting at my gate at JFK airport, emotionally, physically, and mentally exhausted. Excited? Most definitely. Scared? Heck yeah. Not to sound pessimistic, but I cannot help myself from thinking that I was crazy to embark on such a journey thousands of miles away from my home. In my eyes, I\u2019m just a 20-year-old…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":325,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oviedo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/325"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13529,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12345\/revisions\/13529"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}