Lessons from an exchange student |

2025 — a pivotal year of growth and change. At first, I barely noticed, but as I tried to adjust and make sense of a life that was both new and unfamiliar, these quiet changes steadily guided me towards a version of myself I hadn’t yet become.

Looking back on my first four months as an international student, I realize that growth isn’t just measured by the courage it took to leave home behind. It lives in the quiet, unspoken moments, where I learned to navigate the space between who I was and who I was becoming. It is the discomfort of the unfamiliar that really drives that change. I struggled to understand this at first;  growth sounded like something more dramatic, something I expected to feel the second I booked that plane ticket or touched down at the San Francisco International Airport. But in reality, it is the smaller moments that define it. Some days, growth meant choosing to ask a stranger for help rather than pretending I knew where I was going. On others, it meant learning to sit with the ache of homesickness without letting it swallow me whole. 

Something no one prepares you for as an international student is the times that feel like you’re starting from zero, with no map or familiar version of yourself to rely on. Moving abroad forces you to unlearn who you thought you were, and after two years of being settled into my home university, I felt like I was back at square one. I moved here knowing nobody, and with that comes an inevitable degree of loneliness. Imposter syndrome is a very real thing and something I absolutely struggled with when I first arrived in the United States. I felt like an outsider, from the way I spoke to the cultural differences I did not yet understand. I began to question whether I belonged: Every interaction carried the weight of my self-consciousness, and every mistake I made felt amplified by it. Yet, it was in these moments of discomfort that I grew. I became resilient and learned to adapt to a world that felt entirely unfamiliar.

The real education of studying abroad is everything that happens outside the classroom. It is learning to navigate culture shock and homesickness while being expected to carry on as normal. This semester forced me to reflect on the person I thought I was. Would I be the same person I am today had I chosen not to study abroad? Or, is moving away from your comfort zone essential to achieve the kind of growth that pushes you toward your full potential? Moving 6,000 miles away from my support network of close friends and family, as well as learning to adjust to a long-distance relationship with my partner, has pushed me to become my own person again. I’ve gained a new sense of independence along with skills I know will benefit me in the future. I cannot stress enough, however, how crazy the process has been, navigating the feelings that nobody prepares you for.

With that said, I am not suggesting that studying abroad is all bad. Moving to Berkeley from the UK has been, without a doubt, the best decision of my life, providing opportunities that are truly once-in-a-lifetime. Through every obstacle I have faced adjusting to my new life here, studying abroad has made me stronger. I gained the confidence to throw myself into new experiences headfirst, saying yes to opportunities I might once have hesitated to take. I can now confidently say I have made some of my closest friends studying abroad, taken steps toward my dream career as a journalist and learned to adjust to an entirely new environment on my own. 

For anyone preparing to study abroad next semester, know that you will have the most incredible time — the next six months for you will be life-changing. And when these feelings of loneliness or self-doubt come, just remember that it is all part of the process. You will come out the other side as the best version of yourself possible.

Studying abroad is the fastest way to grow up, whether you want to or not. I have learned to depend on myself in ways I never had to before. I have learned that loneliness can coexist with excitement, that fear doesn’t cancel out opportunity, and that missing home does not mean I am not meant to be here. Looking back on 2025, I realize I have grown into someone my first-year self would be proud to meet — not because I had everything figured out, but because I navigated the moments where I didn’t.

Maybe growth isn’t meant to be dramatic after all. Maybe it is the slow process of becoming the best version of yourself — the small and steady reshaping we only notice when we pause for long enough to look back.