It was the middle of the afternoon on a sunny, sweltering day in 格拉纳达, 西班牙, and I was sitting on a curb right outside of the 格拉纳达 Cathedral. There was a WiFi hotspot there, so I had chosen that random spot to sit and video chat with my family back home, and tell them that I had decided to buy a plane ticket to 罗马 for the next weekend. 提前六天. I remember being stressed about the lack of time, and feeling like I was maybe a little bit crazy -- or a lot crazy. “Am I really doing this?” 我心想. 是的, I really did it -- I bought my plane ticket to 罗马 in that WiFi hotspot outside the cathedral, and it was one of the best decisions I ever made.
While this may not have been a big deal for some people, it was huge for me. As any of my family members or friends will tell you, I am NOT a spontaneous person. I’m the youngest in my family, so I was used to always having someone around to make decisions for me or help me out, and I had just never been too interested in trying crazy things on my own. While I was studying in 西班牙, however, that all changed. I knew I was there for a limited time, and that I wanted to make the most out of that time. 我知道, while buying a plane ticket a couple of days in advance isn’t the cheapest way to go, it’s still WAY cheaper than flying from the United States. And 我知道 I could always work more to make up for spending a little extra money, but I would always regret not taking the opportunity if I had one. So, I decided to be brave.
Thinking back on my experience, though this was definitely the biggest opportunity for me to be brave abroad, it definitely wasn’t the only one. 对我来说, it felt brave to live in a homestay -- it was initially strange to be living in someone else’s home while also trying to speak their language and adopt their way of living. 但, it was also the absolute best way to practice that language and learn more about the culture; if I hadn’t lived in a homestay, I know my experience would have been great, but it wouldn’t have been as meaningful for me. Likewise, I remember being incredibly intimidated the first time my friends and I went to an “intercambio,” or language exchange, in 格拉纳达. Even though the entire purpose of the event is for native Spanish speakers to get to practice English, and for native English speakers to practice Spanish, we all had the impression that the Spaniards would be far better at English than we were at Spanish, and that we would walk out embarrassed and ashamed. 我们第一次去的时候, we stopped outside the door of the bar for a good five minutes, debating whether or not we were going to go in. 但, we decided to be brave -- and of course all of our fears were proven to be pointless. We met a lot of amazing people with really interesting life stories, and we got to learn a lot of Spanish slang and culture.
This became one of the greatest lessons that I learned while abroad: it pays to be brave. I would have had an amazing summer in 格拉纳达 no matter what (I was in 西班牙, after all) but the decisions I made to be brave -- big and small -- made my experience what it was: the best summer of my life. 而且，因为我的 宝博体育 格拉纳达的经历, I returned home with a completely new outlook on life and a determination to live boldly. So, whether you’re currently 宝博体育 or just returning home, my advice to you is the same: be brave.
Megan Evans is a CEA 校友大使 who studied abroad in 格拉纳达, 西班牙, during Summer 2019. She is currently a student at the University of Utah.