Readjustment
Reverse culture shock. Readjustment. These are the things you might not hear about so much when you plan to study abroad. You get all the advice and do all the preparing to go abroad, but what about when you return from the best experience of your life? How do you come back to mundane, unexciting everyday life in the States? How do you return to your old life after a semester of daily adventures and challenges?
Fortunately, my school provided a session prior to our departure to address the issues of reverse culture shock and readjustment. So I had heard about these as well as received a packet of information on what to expect and how to deal with returning from studying abroad. It can be difficult to return to US culture and to friends and family who have not been abroad and cannot understand what you’ve experienced. It can also be frustrating when you feel different and know that you have changed as a result of your experience abroad, yet your family and friends do not recognize or understand this change.
It’s the end of my first week back in the good ole US of A, and looking back at this information I was given, I am trying to see how much of it has been true for me. At first, I was really excited to be back home and for the Christmas season. I think having the holidays here has helped to ease me back into my old life slowly, since there is a good deal of excitement surrounding this time of year.
As the week has progressed, though, I have longed for the excitement and challenges of everyday life abroad. And I miss having people around who have been through this experience with me. It’s so difficult to answer that question that everyone asks when you see them for the first time after being abroad: “So, how was it?!” How do you put into a simple sentence all the feelings and experiences that you had while abroad? “Amazing” and “Really fun” just don’t seem to cut it; but I use them anyways to dismiss the question.
I feel like if you really want to know what it was like, you just have to study abroad yourself. I think that’s the best any of us can say—to truly know, you have to have gone through it. So, my advice? Go through it! Study abroad! Gain an understanding of what this experience is like and how it can change you for the better. I always knew studying abroad would be fun, but how much I would learn and change I didn’t expect. It really was the most amazing time of my life. But don’t take my word for it. Go see for yourself.
|
