“Study abroad will be the best four months of your life.” “Go live your best life.” You won’t want to come home.”

 

These are only a few of the statements I heard for months before my departure to Copenhagen.

 

Elon is ranked #1 in study abroad with more than 80 percent of students participating in a program. Because of this, the majority of my friends have gone abroad at least once during their time at Elon.

 

I love that Elon makes study abroad so accessible, but it also fosters an unrealistic standard for what studying and living in a foreign country for four months is really like.

 

One of my main goals with starting a blog was to be completely transparent in documenting my experience in Copenhagen. While I feel I’ve done this, I’ve focused on the positives and forgotten to truly describe how I’m feeling.

 

Social media is an amazing platform full of everyone’s highlight reels and studying abroad only intensifies this. As I scroll through my own Instagram I see pictures of beautiful landmarks and all the different friends I’ve made. And while this isn’t me falsifying my experience, I’m definitely guilty of not showing every side of my time here.

 

Because of this, today I’m going to use this post to talk about some of the not so glamorous or fun parts of studying abroad.

 

I was diagnosed with anxiety a few years ago. One thing about mental health that is incredibly frustrating is that you can’t control it, and a lot of times you can’t understand it. This has probably been the hardest part of being abroad for me.

 

Some days I really don’t enjoy myself whether I feel indifferent, anxious or just sad. The worst part of this is that there isn’t a clear reason for feeling this way. I just do.

 

And to make it worst, I feel weird talking about it to anyone because I don’t want to sound ungrateful or like abroad isn’t as fun as people were making it out to be. And so, here I am perpetuating the same cycle I fall victim to.

 

Having a bad day is completely natural. Feeling homesick, sad, scared or discouraged is incredibly common. But since we don’t want to come across this way we fail to talk to each other about how we’re actually feeling.  

 

Recently, I’ve chosen to start opening up about the difficult days in Copenhagen. I’ve talked to my mom, my friends from school and the friends I’ve made here. I’ve been honest with them about not feeling happy all the time, about having really bad anxiety some days and about missing home.

 

Even though I don’t have a solution, I can fully say that actually vocalizing the fact that I’m not 100 percent has been incredibly therapeutic. So I challenge all of us to be vulnerable and speak the truth. I’ve found that most of the people studying abroad with me also have really difficult days.

 

We’re not alone. It’s natural to feel anxious and upset when settling into a new place. But holding that in and only sharing the best parts of study abroad perpetuates a false narrative and isolates us at a time when we need people the most.

 

Don’t get me wrong. These past two months in Copenhagen have been full of amazing experiences and incredible people. But they’ve also been challenging, and it’s time to actually talk about study abroad holistically. Let’s stop leaving out the hard times.

 

If you’re having a difficult time settling in, you are not alone. Talk to the people around you, your friends, and your family, don’t let yourself struggle alone.