My Erasmus experience

An Important Decision in my Life

Some people are afraid of foreign adventures and prefer to stay in their zone of comfort; after all, it is safer and less challenging than a journey into the unknown. In my second year of my major, I had the opportunity to be part of an exchange student program at a European university. Even though it opened the door to a range of possibilities to increase my knowledge, I knew that I had to leave other things behind. Despite that, I applied to this program and tried hard to get in. Studying abroad was a difficult decision to take because it not only kept me away from my family and friends, but also led me to different experiences.

The hardest thing that I had to confront was to leave my relatives and my country behind. Indeed, it was the first time living alone in a foreign nation and thousand miles from my home. At the beginning, I was about to give up because I felt homesick. Everything was new and nobody helped me. On one occasion, I got lost in the middle of the city and I took a couple of hours to find the way to go back to my apartment. Also, I had to be accustomed to a new lifestyle. For instance, the weather played a role in the people’s life because if they had a sunny day, they had better mood. Furthermore, the food was unusual and I could not find anything from Nicaragua. However, I took advantage of the all these experiences.

In fact, I realized that studying in a prestigious university of Europe could give me some benefits. Over the course of the time, I made lots of friends from many countries, so I learned about other cultures. As a result, I opened my mind to other realities, such as traditions, celebrations, standard of living, etc. In addition, my language skills improved when I studied German as a foreign language at the university. At first, it was not so easy because I did not understand when people talked to me. After approximately three months there, my German got better and I was able to take classes that were related by my major. In the same way, I took advantage of being in Europe. For example, because of European Union in which people could travel freely throughout most of the continent, I visited some historic places and countries.

In conclusion, the exchange student program was a great experience in my life, in which I had much more benefits than losses. It contributed to my personal and professional growth. Also, I had a lot of fun and made really good friends. For these reasons, I came up with the idea that the only way to find out if a decision is right or wrong is by always doing it.

...