{"id":4561,"date":"2019-10-14T02:01:09","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T06:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/?p=4561"},"modified":"2019-10-14T02:01:09","modified_gmt":"2019-10-14T06:01:09","slug":"anna-a-new-approach-to-the-school-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/2019\/10\/14\/anna-a-new-approach-to-the-school-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Anna: A New Approach to The School Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"660\" height=\"371\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/piSbcoHPf9o?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201cThis summer, I studied abroad in Madrid and it was an experience like no other&#8230;\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u2026but studying abroad didn\u2019t exactly \u201cchange\u201d my life, it just brought to light a different side of me that was always there. My time in Madrid still impacts me to this day and is why I\u2019m going about this school year with a whole new perspective! These are my biggest takeaways from this summer:<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Becoming more aware of time<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Studying abroad pushed me to be more aware of the time that I have (and as college students, we have very, very limited time!). My abroad program was only 6.5 weeks long&#8211;and while that sounds like a lot, it really isn\u2019t. Coming back to BU, this realization of time pushed me to get involved with only the things I truly wanted to do and be with the people I wanted to be around.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Doing things with confidence<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I became more confident in who I am after this trip. Being in a country where no one knows you and you don\u2019t have to fear that you look \u201cweird\u201d is a pretty great feeling. And studying abroad pushed me to be that person even in Boston. I became more grounded in my decisions and less afraid to speak up for the things I believe in. Once I started doing that, I not only became more confident but also happier!<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Seeking adventures<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">A lot of my friends say I have the travel bug now because while my study abroad adventures ended when the program ended, the desire to explore the world continued. The northeast is a pretty great place to live, and as students, we have access to so many states and cities! Since coming back, I\u2019ve grasped a new beauty for meeting new people and discovering new places. (It\u2019s important to get out of the BU bubble too!)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Studying abroad was one of the most challenging things I\u2019ve ever done. It pushed me in ways I could\u2019ve never imagined both mentally and physically. The breakdowns I had made me stronger. The friendships I made, I know, are lifelong. Most importantly, studying abroad has given me a new sense of purpose for the rest of my college career at BU, pushing me to do the things that bring me joy! <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cThis summer, I studied abroad in Madrid and it was an experience like no other&#8230;\u201d\u00a0 \u2026but studying abroad didn\u2019t exactly \u201cchange\u201d my life, it just brought to light a different side of me that was always there. My time in Madrid still impacts me to this day and is why I\u2019m going about this school &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/2019\/10\/14\/anna-a-new-approach-to-the-school-year\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Anna: A New Approach to The School Year<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2018,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7271],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4561"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2018"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4562,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4561\/revisions\/4562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/comblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}