I never thought I would write an article for my college’s website from thousands of feet in the air, but I am. When I started college, I didn’t think I would be living in Spain for a semester either, but I am.
This Spring semester, thanks to scholarships from the university’s Office of Global Engagement and the fact that I worked my ass off for the last seven months, I am studying abroad with University Studies Abroad Consortium. I’ll be finishing my Spanish minor there at Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, and I’ll be living the life of an Oklahoman who achingly wants to be every part a Spaniard for four months.
I write this while I’m on a flight to Chicago. It’s not too exciting when you think about the many more flights I will board that will take me farther than I’ve ever gone in my life. Flying may be new to me, but it doesn’t shock a majority of students who have to fly to get to school and have to fly to get home. But to my body, airports and planes are larger than life, and a little more than frightening.
When I went up to airport security, I teared up saying goodbye to my folks. My body temperature rose a few degrees as I passed through the security. And after I’d found my gate and reassured myself that I was where I needed to be, my heart started thumping the closer we got to boarding time, like it wanted to jump out of my throat and run all the way back home.
But I didn’t listen to it.
I boarded the plane I sit on. I have more obstacles to overcome before I will arrive in Spain. I’ll have more obstacles to overcome once I get there. But one thing I have already learned is that if you are like me, you will always feel scared when you are faced with something you do not know. Especially if it is still hard for you to believe that your efforts will take you somewhere that’s worth it, fear is hard to overcome. But you can take that unsureness, that small fear and use it to fuel a rocket of passion inside of you, and that rocket will take you to that next adventure.
You might always be scared of the unknown that lies before you, but that doesn’t mean you can’t run toward it anyway and be places where you never believed you would go before.
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