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Category Stories: Wellness, Health, and Safety

  • Learning How to Swim in Troubled Waters

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    Learning How to Swim in Troubled Waters

    Life is truly unpredictable. You never know what’s going to happen, when it’ll happen, or where you’ll end up. In some cases, this means being granted some of the best blessings in life; exploring countries you never thought you’d ever see. In other cases, this means dealing with hardships that derail you from everything you…

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  • Yes! Extroverts Get Culture Shock Too

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    Yes! Extroverts Get Culture Shock Too

    I had been anxiously awaiting my semester abroad so much that I didn’t sleep the night before my 7 a.m. flight to London. I’ll admit I was too tired to do my normal fidgeting on the plane but once I touched down in the U.K. I felt a wash of relief and assurance that the…

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  • Abroad: This is For Me, Not For You…

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    Abroad: This is For Me, Not For You…

    Being First Gen My background as a first-generation student has been crucial in determining the experiences I’ve had growing up. For me, being first-generation means coming from a low-income family with immigrant parents; well meaning but unable to give advice on how to navigate the U.S. education system and careers that follow after. It also…

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  • How Study Abroad Helped my Mental Health and Emotions

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    How Study Abroad Helped my Mental Health and Emotions

    Mental Health Back Home My emotions are something I’ve struggled with a lot in the past. In particular, I feel this at my home university because at Colby I feel stressed and sometimes lonely. Being so far away from home at Colby is hard. I always miss my family and the comfort of Chicago: of…

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  • Homesickness Abroad: How To Get Over the First Month Slump

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    Homesickness Abroad: How To Get Over the First Month Slump

    Homesickness Abroad: How To Get Over the First Month Slump Part One: The Slump Ask just about anyone who studied abroad and they will all likely tell you the same thing: it was life changing. Ask me? I will without a doubt agree. But if you would have asked me, “How do you like study…

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  • How To Overcome First Generation Hurdles While Studying Abroad

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    How To Overcome First Generation Hurdles While Studying Abroad

    Let me start by saying that I am a first-generation college student who grew up in poverty. I have also struggled with depression and anxiety for most of my life. At one point, I started failing classes and had to drop out of college for a year and a half. Studying abroad has always been…

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  • Safe Travels for My Abroad Ladies!

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    Safe Travels for My Abroad Ladies!

    Before My Study Abroad Several foreboding warnings were handed delicately within conversation to me before departing for my semester at the University of Glasgow, from both my family and friends. As a woman planning to travel in foreign countries besides Scotland during my time abroad, most people warned me with wariness to be aware of my surroundings while…

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  • Some Thoughts on the Unexpected Benefits of Traveling Solo

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    Some Thoughts on the Unexpected Benefits of Traveling Solo

    Traveling During the six-week Easter break afforded to me at Oxford, I accomplished some travel. This was about a month and a half’s worth, most of it alone, as I took trains around the South of France and Alpine Austria, did a pilgrimage to Lourdes, and spent a frankly unnecessarily long time in Bordeaux. There’s something to…

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  • Women Traveling Abroad

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    Women Traveling Abroad

    Many students who study abroad try to make the most of their experience by traveling to different places throughout the course of the semester. In fact, as the end of our time abroad draws closer and closer, I cannot name a single exchange student I met who hasn’t traveled at least once throughout the past…

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  • How to Reset While Abroad

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    How to Reset While Abroad

    As I passed the two-month marker of my semester abroad, I entered a rut: one that can only be described as complacency. I had become complacent with a schedule that did not leave me excited to leave my bed. I went to classes and paid very minimal attention, if any. I just went through the…

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