As we wrap up the semester, my final post for the Beyond the Elms Blog will be a reflective look back upon my semester abroad, and the lessons I have taken away from this experience. Every semester, I find that I grow not only in knowledge, but also in self-awareness. My character develops as I mature through the different experiences I undergo in college, and this semester has been exceptional in the area of self-growth and personal consciousness.
This semester abroad has taught me, most of all, the importance of practicing patience. When thrown into new, and unknown situations, it is often very easy to become frustrated 
and overwhelmed. Personally, when I am faced with such troubling circumstances, I shut down. Meaning, I become easily annoyed, angry, and bad tempered. As you can imagine, coming abroad to a foreign country might have these effects on a person, especially when
it’s 100 degrees outside and you are dripping sweat, surrounded by massive groups of tourists trying to get around you as you squint at a map to locate your classroom on the first day. Basically, I shut down. Yet, over the course of the next few weeks, as things didn’t always go smoothly, I kept becoming so frustrated that I realized I wasn’t really enjoying my time abroad. I needed to figure out a balance in order to truly enjoy this amazing experience I had worked so hard to reach. The answer came around eventually… Fundamentally, patience saved my abroad experience, and made me realize how I needed to change my perspective and reactions in order to successfully thrive.
From my overall experience abroad, I’ve never had to be more patient in my entire life. Instead of shutting down, constantly reminding myself to go with the flow and practice patience saved me from collapsing all together. For example, when my train was delayed an hour, which made me miss my connecting train, and thus, led me to miss my flight home, I could’ve potentially had an aneurism right there in the airport, the first weeks in Italy! Yet, when this happened several times over the course of the four months here, I learned to go with the flow and to come up with a plan B, C and D. In these moments, patience saved me from a break-down or two, and taught me to laugh it off. Detecting a notable change in my mood and personality, once I learned to embrace this, was perhaps the best aspect to my whole experience here. I could literally feel myself becoming more mature and relaxed, and it was honestly refreshing.
Generally speaking, I believe that the skills we learn from our college experiences are what define us and lead us to become successful in the professional world. The skills we gain from our time at college or abroad, are similar to what we take away from other new experiences such as in jobs or internships. From every new experience, regardless of the ups and downs that are inevitably dragged along, we gain valuable skills and insight about ourselves along the way. Learning how to apply these skills, such as patience, into different sectors of our lives is invaluable. I know for a fact that patience will come in handy at any internship or job I have in the future, and I will continue to practice this skill in different areas of my life.
Without those tough experiences thrown my way this semester, I wouldn’t have matured or come to such deepened levels of self-realization. Thus, the constant need to be challenged and placed into tough situations, is vital in order to grow as a young adult, and be successful in our career as real adults later on!
Yes, Tyra.