Hello everyone & welcome to my very first blog post!
Whether you are currently a student considering taking part in an Erasmus program (like I did), or if travel in general is an aspect of life that you would like to explore, I hope that this blog encourages you to take every opportunity you are given to discover yourself and see as much of the world as you can.
I think to start off, I should explain why I am so passionate about this topic and why I speak so highly of my time away from home.
I took part in the UCD Erasmus program in the Spring of 2018, where I travelled to Canada to complete a semester of college in Queens University Ontario. I applied for this opportunity with one main thing in mind, the desire to push myself out of my comfort zone. I felt that prior to this opportunity I had not yet pushed my personal boundaries in order to see how I was able to cope on my own, in a new environment.
Image Available at: https://livelifehappy.com/life-quotes/stepping-out-of-your-comfort-zone-and-trying-new-things-is/
I was terrified. The thought of leaving all my friends, family and normal day to day life in Dublin made me very anxious and I struggled to see how I was going to enjoy the months ahead.
However over the duration of the semester, I learnt a huge deal about myself, developed crucial life skills and grew into the person I am today.
Later in the blog I will discuss certain aspects of my time away, including;
o Canada
o Friends
o Travel & Activities
o Learning & Skills Obtained
o Arising Opportunities
I plan to travel even more after college in order to see similar changes in my life for the better.
I could not recommend travelling enough & Canada was a great place for me to start.
Canada
I chose to study in Canada because it had always been a country that appealed to me as a potential place to live and settle in for a few months.
I chose to attend the college of Queen's university. The college was architecturally stunning to look at & a very nice place to complete a semester of my studies.
This blog is not about the college itself but for more information on the college & all the opportunities they offer you should check out their website at:
https://www.queensu.ca/
Image above is my own personal content.
Canada’s culture in general is very similar to Ireland's. Any of the Canadians that I met were very friendly and always wanted to help make my time in Canada more enjoyable. This exposure of people coming from different cultural backgrounds helped me grow as a person and become more integrated within the exchange program, with a greater all-round knowledge of cultures outside of Ireland.
The Canadian weather from January – April was also freezing, which taught me to appreciate the little bit of sun that we see in Ireland in the Springtime.
Friends
The new friends that I made in my time away are the thing I hold in highest regard. I have made friends for life and from a variety of different places around the world (such as Ireland, Canada, Australia, Europe, Brazil, America, etc.). This has opened so many opportunities for future travelling and trips to visit these friends.
The opportunity to travel will expose you to people that you would never meet in your usual environment. Looking back, before I had travelled on my own, I hadn’t really put enough effort into meeting new people and experiencing new things with them. My time away completely changed this, and I believe it to be one of the best attitudes changes I have had since embarking on my exchange.
Travel & Activities
Canada is a huge country and there was so much to do & see in all the different cities. We used each weekend to travel to friends in other parts of Canada such as Montreal and Ottawa. This internal travel gave me the opportunity to see more places within Canada, not just the small university town. Canada is a beautiful country with countless things to do, such as ice-skating, snow tubing, etc. and it has a great nightlife and abundance of social activities available. This travel was very enjoyable and probably one of the highlights of my few months away.
I was also very fortunate to travel to both New York and Cuba due to cheap travel options & the location of Canada being so close to both.
Learning & Skills Obtained
I personally found being away from my friends & family to be the most challenging aspect of living abroad. However with phones and face time they were never far away! Also just adjusting to living alone was a challenge for me, but you’ll be surprised how much you get used to it and even miss it once you are home.
Student life and the working culture of Canada is very different to Ireland and UCD. Their approach to working is very interactive and vocal. This was something I found very different in the beginning but adjusted to it quickly. I found that it developed my skills of public speaking by learning from the people around me.
Automatically by having the experience of studying abroad, your adapting skills are ones you can pride yourself on. I found in all of my internship and job interviews, they were very interested in talking/hearing about this aspect of my Erasmus. Living alone, adapting to a new culture, interacting with people you wouldn’t usually & travel in general are all reasons you can use to convince your employer that you have great adapting skills.
Another skill that I believe I built on was being independent. For the first time ever, I was living on my own, with complete freedom to go about my day as I pleased. It was liberating. It did however take time and patience to eventually be comfortable and confident on my own, but I believe it is a life skill that will stick to me going forward.
Arising Opportunities
I have found that by having had the experience of living abroad, I have been exposed to numerous opportunities that I may not have come across had I not gone on my Erasmus. So many employers nowadays are looking for people who have experience in multicultural environments & who have shown initiative and independence. My Erasmus provided me with both of these. Being able to talk about my experiences living abroad massively aided me in the interview process for applying for jobs. For example, I was asked to provide evidence of a situation in which I had to adapt to a new environment. I am very sure that my Erasmus experience put me ahead of the other candidates who did not complete a similar exchange.
Food for thought…
I really think anyone who has the opportunity, should take part in the Erasmus program. Canada was an amazing location to complete my Erasmus but there are plenty of other location options out there, such as: Australia, Europe, New Zealand, China etc.
Due to how much I enjoyed my time away, I have definitely decided that going forward I want to explore similar travelling opportunities. I hope that this blog has given you all an insight to my time abroad and hopefully it has encouraged you all to take similar opportunities in your stride.
Until my next blog!
Megan 😊