The Importance of Breaking Out of Your Comfort Zone
Studying abroad has been this extraordinary opportunity to get out of my little Fairfield bubble for a semester. I had some hesitations about this whole experience because before I came abroad I had never traveled out of America and I had only been on two planes in my life. So, living in a new country for four months was really new and different and a little scary. Navigating a completely new city and country, and a new school that is about 5 times the size of Fairfield, at first I felt a like a small fish in a big pond, just trying not to go belly up. After a few weeks of struggling however, I did find myself at home in Galway.
My first out of country trip was sort of a big deal for me, considering traveling hadn’t really been my forte. But, the first weekend in October I had scheduled a trip to Madrid to meet up with one of my long time high school friends. Traveling on my own meant I had to get myself to the airport, navigate the very foreign world of airports and then find my friend once I got to Spain. I have a bad case of what I like to call “new place” anxiety, in which I get very nervous about going new places. This could be a new classroom building, a new part of town, or just anywhere that I don’t know the layout and have no feel for where I am. I still felt an enormous amount of accomplishment getting myself through the Dublin airport and to Spain and consequentially navigating Madrid. This is not something I would have ever done by choice before coming abroad. It gave me a feeling of empowerment.
I think this lesson of getting out of your comfort zone applies really nicely to writing. It can be hard or scary to write about things, or in a style that is uncomfortable or different. But as I have learned in my writing and in my life experiences, it is worth it to take that leap and it can pay off in the best ways. So the challenge is, especially with finals coming up, trying to challenge yourself to do something different. You never know where it might take you.
