This was the story of probably the most terrifying but most rewarding moment in my life. I went to France after my first year at SUU for my EDGE (Education Designed to Give Experience) project. This is a program where you choose from one of five centers on campus - Outdoor, Leadership, Creativity, Community, and Global - and design your own project to do outside of the classroom. I chose to do a study abroad and it was definitely amazing: incredible food, museums, shopping, amazing food, school, beaches, hikes, new friends (and delicious food).
I had been taking French in school for seven years but I wasn't super confident in my ability to actually speak it to people, especially when I got there and tried to talk to my host family and all the students in my class, who were amazing at French. But, the longer I stayed, the better I became, and eventually it was all summed up in the situation described
here. I missed my train and was all alone in a giant train station where no one spoke very good English. As I'm sure you can imagine, I was scared out of my mind, but I made it. It turns out my French actually was good enough for me to find myself a new ticket and the train I needed, and I've never felt more proud of myself.
If it wasn't for the EDGE program, I probably never would have had this amazing opportunity to spend a month of my life in France and grow personally in ways I couldn't even imagine at the time. Plus, I got to knock out half the credits I needed for my French minor in just four weeks, in a different country, while paying the same tuition I pay at SUU. It was basically winning all around.
And the food... ahhh.
No comments:
Post a Comment