“I Wish I Would Have Known: A Guide to Study Abroad”

Abstract

Where should I go, Mexico or Spain? When I began a year long journey with lifelong results, that was the first question I asked myself. I knew, before I was even a student at Carroll College, that I would spend a year of my college education in a Spanish speaking country, but as a naive, young student that was all I knew. I did not have the slightest notion of how I would get there, the trials I would face while I was there, the pain I would feel when I returned to the United States, or the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual growth that I would undergo while I was in a foreign country far away from everything and everyone familiar and comfortable.