The End

Fifteen months ago, I started something crazy: I enrolled in two consecutive Study Abroad programs and spent the time between them with my brother in Egypt, who was also studying abroad. I figured it was an opportunity too good to pass up.

Now I'm back in the United States, and the status quo has almost returned to normal. The environment is the same, but I'm certainly not the same person who flew to Austria fifteen months ago. How could I remain unchanged, after everything I saw and did? I lived with a new family, learned a new language, and stayed abroad for over a year. I observed the extremes of the human condition, from absurd German festival traditions to the quiet horrors of Vinzidorf and Auschwitz. All of these experiences were so unique that I remember them as individual episodes that stand out against the others, not with them. That's what my plan turned out to be - hundreds of moments, each of which could have been the highlight of a student's time abroad but which instead formed the basis of my everyday life. I took a huge leap by being abroad for fifteen months, and I am a better person for it.

I wanted to be a big picture person, and I believe I have arrived.

-Jared Boze