Written By: Austin Borreson
Picture credit: CNN
Studying abroad is one of the best times I’ve ever had in my life, and I thought that time would continue. Sadly, this situation leads to reverse culture shock. For me, I never experienced culture shock when I first went to Germany, but after I returned from my year, it hit me hard. I developed a routine, made friends, and got accustomed to my new city, and once the year was up, I had to go back to what I was doing before I left. What I didn’t realize until a while after coming back is how much I changed while I was gone, as cliché as it sounds. Going abroad was the first truly independent choice I made, and the outcome of it depended on my own actions. I got out, what I put in. I loved every minute of it, but everyone back home had never been through any of it. Although everyone asked about it, not many people want to hear the endless stories of the best experience of your life, which I can’t blame them. I wouldn’t want to listen to hours of stories that have no connection to myself. That was one of the defining reasons I started to pursue international subjects and meet people who could share in the experience of being abroad.
I tried to meet people who had been abroad or international students on campus because those were the people who had gone through the same things as me. I became actively involved in the various German events because it was my main way of reconnecting with my time. Other than my last two German classes, they were also the only times I got to practice my German. I was so used to hearing and speaking German all the time, it was weird to just stop doing it. The only times I got to use German was when I talked to my German friends or the TA for German. This situation made me quickly realize the lack of language diversity around me. There were very few chances to use my German, and it started to fade for me. Similar in my experience of studying abroad, I had to apply myself to use, otherwise it would dwindle away. From this, my desire to increase language diversity and learning awakened.
It did not take long for me to catch the travel bug after returning, but this time, it took me to the other side of the world. My return from China was much easier than my return from Germany, mainly because of the length of my time there. I was only in Asia for five short weeks, so it went by in a flash, and before I knew it, I was back in Grand Forks. The length of your stay vastly changes the difficulty of returning home, which made my return to China that much easier. The longer you stay, the more it becomes like a new home. After my experiences, I was determined to make being in international settings or spurring thee growth of cultural learning and understanding a part of my future. This is what ultimately led to my decision to apply for the Fulbright ETA to Germany. It combined both of those aspects into one and sounded like the ideal next step for me. I knew I wasn’t ready to stop traveling and experiencing culture, and now to see where my next adventure leads me.