Submitted by Samantha O’Brien on the 2013 summer session study abroad program in Australia sponsored by the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics…
I have had an absolutely incredible experience living in Australia for the past seven weeks. Living here has turned out to be everything I was expecting and more. The city is both stunning and exciting and the people here are the friendliest I have ever encountered. Coming here, I set out with many goals, both personal and professional and have learned so much about myself and about life itself by seeking out and accomplishing these goals. This has been a truly enlightening experience and I am truly sad to see it come to an end.
My largest goal that I held when I initially applied for this program was to begin fulfilling my lifelong dream of traveling the world. I hope to someday travel to every continent and swim in every ocean. I heard once of the idea of attempting to travel to thirty countries by the time you are thirty, forty by the time you are forty, and so on, and while I am not sure how likely it is that I will actually be able to accomplish this goal, I am extremely excited to have taken my first step toward accomplishing it. Before joining this program, I had only ever flown on a plane once in my life with my parents as a child. I had never really lived near enough to a city to navigate my way using public transportation and the like. I had never travelled on my own, planned out trips for myself and myself only, or stayed in a hotel or hostel alone for the night.
I have now flown on several planes and have lived in a city constantly using all forms of public transportation from trains to busses to ferries and have learned the system of doing so to the point that I feel confident I will be able to traverse to and from as well as around any city with ease. While I have not stayed alone in a hotel or hostel yet, I have been on my own enough in the city that I feel confident that I will feel comfortable in any situation and be able to accomplish almost any task completely on my own. I will be staying in hostels for the rest of my trip and while I was initially nervous about this idea when I first arrived in Sydney, I have found everyone I meet to be so friendly and welcoming that I am no longer worried in the slightest. This is the goal I was hoping to accomplish personally through this trip. I wanted to develop a better understanding of how to trek through this world on my own without being worried. I wanted to be able to travel confidently and successfully and without needing someone by my side at all times as I have always had in the past. I feel that I have begun developing this understanding of travel and confidence to do it on my own, and while I have not yet been on my own, I feel that I will not have a problem when I go to New Zealand in a few days. I am so grateful to have had this experience and cannot wait to go on my next excursion around the world.