Hey my name is Rowan!
I’m a sophomore International Leadership major with a double minor in Organizational Social Responsibility and Gender Studies! This semester I’m studying abroad in none other than Paris, France through the IES Business and International Affairs Program. We just finished our first week of classes which consisted, for me, of courses on a variety of political science and sociology courses. Between getting ready for classes, adjusting to living with a host mom who doesn’t speak English to navigating the complex metro system during the ongoing transportation strike, every turn has brought on welcomed challenges and adventures. So far, I’ve visited tons of different places around Paris, some of them pictured here! My favorites would be Sainte-Chaptelle (a 15th century cathedral with amazing, original stained glass) and getting to learn about all the nuances of French culture, something that never ceases to amaze! It’s already been a whirlwind of a trip and I’ve still got three months to go!
The Trials and Tribulations of the First Month Abroad
Studying abroad felt like déjà vu at first. Orientation and the first few weeks were just a little too reminiscent of Freshman year. Awkward ice breaker conversations, not knowing where to sit at lunch, feeling out of place… A lot of the students at IES come through larger universities and know other students in the program already, I very much did not know anyone. If you’re anything like me, walking into any room with a large group of strangers is possibly one of the most terrifying things you can do. So, to say the first three weeks or so were difficult would be a bit of an understatement.
But the thing about studying abroad with a program like IES is that there is structure and thus tools built in. Back home at Marietta, I go to the counseling center pretty regularly just to process and decompress. I told the student affairs staff member as much and she put me in touch with a fantastic American counselor who helped me talk through the stress that comes with picking up your life and moving it across an ocean on your own. Then, a few weeks into the program, I went on a weekend trip to the Loire Valley, hosted by IES, that is supposed to indirectly spur friendships etc. Some of the people that I had met in passing or in my classes were there and suddenly, over the span of 32 hours, three castles, and fine cuisine, I had a group of friends.
When I first got here, the IES staff kept saying that there’s a period where it will be so difficult, and everyone will feel like they just want to go home etc. etc. And then one day, it’ll just be okay. That typically after the overnight trips, people would just suddenly… Be okay. Your life would just pick back up where it stopped like no time has passed. I didn’t really believe them. At all. I just figured it would be difficult for the next three months and that was that on that. But they were right. I went from having to do things on my own not because I wanted to but because I had no other choice, to having a new challenge of balancing time with friends and schoolwork. It quite literally happened over night.
I don’t think walking into rooms of strangers will ever really get easier for me. I will always feel out of place and always hear alarm bells going off in my head. But I’ve been very lucky to see immediate growth and be able to internalize this. It’s easy to ignore how much progress we make and to push aside the pride that we should feel for getting through hard things for the sake of modesty, but I’m not ashamed to say that I am proud of myself. I look back at myself from three weeks ago and see a very different person. In a short amount of time, I have gained a sense of peace and a new confidence in my own resiliency. There are still challenges. It’s still school. It’s still difficult. Just because I’m in the City of Lights doesn’t mean that all the sudden life is perfect. There’s nothing easy about anything that I’m doing throughout this semester. But that doesn’t mean that it hasn’t already been completely, and utterly worth it.-Rowan Henderson-Bernard
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