Alright, so you're ready to head off for a semester living abroad. You're not going to forget to pack your passport, right? Your camera. You've got your phone. Flip flops. Debit card. OTC medicine supply. Favorite comfy travel pants. Check, check, and check.
But when you start to roll your suitcase out the door of your house on your way to the airport, you're going to ask yourself, "Did I forget anything?"
For a little more help packing, check out our list of things to pack ... but you'll notice that a journal or notebook definitely makes that list!
Your Journal Is Everything
You are about to embark on one of the most memorable, life changing experiences of your life. Every single day will have an adventure of its own. Don't rely on your faulty memory and photographs alone to keep a record of the days you spend in another country. Write it down. All of it.
While you're right in the middle of your adventure, you'd never believe you'd forget your student's names ... but you will (that happened to me!). Or you'll never forget all those funny inside jokes you have with your group right? Nope, best write it down.
One ILP volunteer made a goal at the beginning of her semester teaching abroad to write in a journal every day. The following year, she read an entry from her journal every day and relived her experience through her entries. She would say things like, "Last year on this day I met the sweetest old woman at the bus stop." Or "This time last year, I sitting on the metro s on my way to Eiffel Tower"
Another ILP volunteer, Stevie, kept a notebook of the language that she was learning while living in Europe along with her normal journal entries of the day.
While you'll remember certain things about your semester, there will be specific moments, emotions, decisions, inside jokes with your ILP group, and more that may slip your memory if you don't write it down.
Give yourself one of the best gifts of your semester and write everything down.
While living abroad for a semester, Ryan spent some time on the train to a favorite vacation spot, writing in his journal:
"This train, swelling and swaying back and forth as though we were riding waves of steel. I steal away these moments into memory to forever immortalize the moments of clarity. Moments when laying on the third bunk from the ground I never felt so grounded. With only a friend to my left and below me, I never felt less alone. This memory that is endless. Never forgetting who I forged these memories with. We may never speak again, but our friendship will stay resurrected in memory ... these words will always conjure back the feeling of riding the swaying and swelling waves of endless steal with friends."
Take a few minutes out of your week of teaching English and adventuring, and record your once in a lifetime adventure abroad. What do you miss from home? What are you grateful for? Who did you meet? What made you laugh so hard you cried? Get that pen and paper and write it all down. You'll be glad you did.
Ready for an entire semester of adventures to fill your journal?
Give yourself something to write about and join us on a trip abroad. You'll get to work with local kids, travel and explore with a group of new friends, and do all those bucket-list type activities you never dreamed you'd actually get to do. We've got countries all over the world that you can volunteer in ... so the only question left is where are going to go?
