She was consumed by a single thought. She couldn’t wait for the adventure to begin.

This will be my last semester as an undergraduate. That’s right, I am spending my final semester as a college student in Germany and will be flying back to Texas just in time to walk the stage and enter the real world… or at least defer my student loans and jump right back into grad school. 

I am anxious about being away from my family and friends, but the great thing about technology is that they are all just a message or facetime away, thank God for wifi and Facebook messenger. Leaving College Station and knowing the next time I would be back will be to graduate was bittersweet, but also exciting. I have always had a plan for what my next steps were going to be. I started out college, maybe somewhat naively sticking to a plan I had for what I wanted to do with my life and that has recently shifted. I had a sort of epiphany that what I had been working for the past three years of college was not where I wanted to be anymore. Was is a little daunting? Yes. But it also gave me some freedom. First, to let myself explore what else I am passionate about and motivated by. It also led me to come on this trip in search of inspiration and personal growth. One of the things I’m anxious about is keeping myself planning for the next year. I think it will be easy to be in Germany and stick my head in the sand. I won’t be going back to College Station, so while I plan to make the most of my time in Germany, I will also be applying to grad schools in the US and Germany and figuring out what my next steps are going to be. One of the main reasons I decided to take this trip is that I am hoping to get out of my comfort zone. I loved my time at A&M but I wanted a change of scenery, culturally and geographically. I want to explore as many places as I can and connect with people that have completely different perspectives on life. I think travel is one of the greatest catalysts for personal growth. I am very excited to meet my host family, it will be a unique experience and I can’t wait to get to know them. I also really want to push myself and see how fluent I can get in the German language during my time there. I have quite a bit of work to do.

On a side note, fun fact about me, I am probably the most directionally challenged person you will ever meet in your life. I have lived in College Station for almost 4 years now and I still use google maps to get around sometimes. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t dreading the loss of this safety blanket, but I am also relishing, just a little bit, the idea of getting somewhere without relying on google maps. And just maybe getting lost and stumbling onto something extraordinary… or you know, just getting terribly lost.