Samantha Trippy, HKUST Exchange, Fall 2014
As a fellow NU student and I finished up our travels at the end of December, we worried for our return back to the US and life at Northwestern. The fall was full of so many incredible and new experiences, largely because we sustained a mentality that we were trying to seize every opportunity for exploration, traveling, and learning. We feared that returning to a more familiar place and a more familiar routine would diminish the enthusiasm with which we were living every day while abroad.
Another NU student and I give our guides a rest in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Months after returning from my exchange in Hong Kong, I am happy to say that I have been able to bring my excitement and drive to continually have new experiences back home. Beyond expanding my worldview and introducing me to people from all over the world, my time abroad made me realize that I spend too much time thinking and not enough time doing. While it’s certainly important to plan ahead and think about your future, I realized that I’ll never get as much as I want done if I don’t start putting my thoughts into action with a healthy sense of urgency. It is with this healthy sense of urgency that I have resolved to actually do the things I’ve always said I wanted to do. For example, since coming back I finally completed the “cross-country” (Chicago to Southern California) road trip I had been dreaming of completing for years.
Keeping the adventure alive back in the US!
So while I certainly enjoy longingly reminiscing my experiences abroad, I continue to focus on making moves to ensure I can hit the ground running for my next adventure!