LIFE CHANGING STUDYING OVERSEAS EXPERIENCE | Living Abroad

Hello dearies! Have you ever dreamed of a life-changing studying experience overseas? This is how my experience living abroad was.

An adventure of going off to another country you aren’t familiar with their culture or maybe even the language? Well, 10 years ago I went on such an adventure and it changed my life forever. What I didn’t count on was that I would never return home the same person and I wouldn’t change a thing about that.

My first time living abroad was not my first time traveling. Yet studying overseas was an experience I could never have imagined!

It was February 2009 when I first arrived in York, England. No, not New York (as many misunderstand when I explain where I studied) the original York that NY was named after; located in Northeastern England which was once a viking settlement and even once occupied by the Romans.

For a 23 year old girl from California, I had traveled quite a bit already in my life thanks to my dad being a pastor and going on many trips to Mexico, Asia, and Europe to visit missionary friends. My dad, mom, and sister even escorted me on my arrival to my new school because we had friends in common there.

I remember when they left, how absolutely terrified I was to try to adjust to a new school in a country that did speak my language (but took me quite some time to adjust to that broad Yorkshire accent). How would I ever make friends and find my way around? Why had I left my family and friends behind… still there was something inside me that knew this was something I had always dreamed of doing and despite how frightened I was, I had a pluck of courage inside me. I was after all still a punk rock metal kid that hopefully looked a little more confident that I felt at the moment?

I hardly left the walls of my dorm room for the first week until my Scottish roommate invited me to go out for a walk and explore the city. After all, York is full of history and one of the few last walled cities in Europe. That afternoon led to one of many excursions and “milk shake dates” with Nicola, who turned out to become a life long friend and even a bridesmaids in each others weddings 2-3 years later.

I spent 2 semesters in York and during that first spring break I went on a trip to Finland with some other students where I met a girl who had studied with Jonas in Sweden 10 years before that. It wasn’t until a year later after I had graduated did she actually connect the two of us online, and the rest as they say, is history. How could I have ever imagined that by taking the courage to follow my dreams to study in Europe would eventually lead to meeting the Swedish man of my dreams?

Sometimes, experiences good or bad have the potential to be life changing when we don’t even realize that yet. You could be forming lifelong friendships, memories, and new possibilities if you just take the first step into the unknown whatever that looks like for you and doesn’t necessarily have to be traveling around the world. Whenever I see a daffodil, I’m instantly transported to that feeling of freedom as I wandering around the medieval stone walls of York covered in yellow flowers.

I hope you got some inspiration from my story of studying overseas. This is the one post in a series about all of our “living abroad” experiences that Jonas & I hope will inspire you to get out of your comfort zone, open your world view, and hopefully learn something new about yourself. Bye For Now,
-Lindsay Dianne

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