1. Gaining independence – living miles away from home means nobody is going to do things for you. You have to do it on your own. The “adult life” won’t hit your harder than when you move abroad and must deal with all the bureaucratic procedures such as visa, residence/student permit, bank accounts, health insurance, and apartment search. Then of course there’s paying bills, studying, searching for internships, and working. 
2. Sharpening your decision-making process – if you mess up, there’s nobody to safe you. You have to learn how to manage your budget and evaluate what you really need. My motto? There’s always a smarter way to do something. 
3. Learning to live with less – I was economical before but when I got to Barcelona, I came with a set budget. It was my responsibility to make it last until the end. When you really stick to what's essential, you realize how often you buy things you don’t need. 
4. A new, healthier, happier lifestyle – Living in Barcelona has been the most fulfilling experience ever. I have been genuinely happy for the first time in my life, and I owe it all to this. Among the things that I’ve valued the most are: quality of life, feeling safe, an effective public transport, recycling, having fun, being able to lie on the beach without nobody disturbing me, going to museums for free, being able to walk around without catcalling, traveling on a budget. The little things indeed make the difference. Always focus on changing for the best. 
5. Working on a culturally-different environment – if you study abroad, you need to do an internship. It is such a rich experience that allows you to grow professionally and gives you a perspective of what it is like to work with culturally-different people. I promise you it’s worth the pain of finding a place. 
6. Making friends from around the world 🌍– when you live so far away from home, the friends you make become family. We only had each other so the bond I created with them is life-changing and permanent. There's a sense of trust, of understanding that only people who go through the same things that you do, have. With them you laugh, you cry, you fight. And at the end of the day I can say that my friends made everything worth it.
7. Traveling 🛪– few things in life help you gain perspective like traveling. I’ve traveled quite a lot -more than I planned to- and immersing myself in other cultures has been amazing. I’ve traveled both with friends and alone and there’s a sense of pride when you manage to organize a trip on your own, figure out the local transport, the best places to eat, see an entire city in a day and even communicate in the local language. 
8. Chasing a dream or two you didn’t know you had – like I said before, life is full of twists and one thing leads to another. I came to Barcelona and spontaneously decided that it was now or never to attend a Bundesliga match in Germany. Fast forward to now, I attended two matches in Munich and those trips made me realize how much I wanted to learn German. So next month I will be pursuing my A1 Deutsch level. Talk about how football has changed my life 😉 
9. Becoming stronger – all the above helps you become a stronger person and makes you realize you’re capable of achieving things you didn’t know you could. 
10. Earning your degree and taking your career forward 🎓– because, after all, that’s why we came here for, right? It’s number 10 not because it’s the least important, but because the truly life-changing are the nine above. A degree? You can also earn it at home. A life-changing experience? You have to go out and chase it. 

So that’s my take on what you truly gain from studying abroad, beyond the degree. I encourage you to move out, to seek an experience in a foreign country even if it’s for a couple of weeks or months. Take a course, do an erasmus, participate in an exchange program, do volunteer work. I promise you that you won’t regret it.

Traveling always seems like a fantastic idea. Exploring different places and cultures is life-changing. But when we do so, it is difficult to grasp the real lifestyle of other countries when we spend there 1 or 2 weeks as a tourist. Studying abroad is often the solution for people like me, who want to truly experience what is it like to live and get used to a whole new city, people, food and customs while getting a degree. As students, we have so many benefits in terms of mobility. We are young and free. I couldn’t see myself growing roots in a place at such a young age. I couldn’t see myself getting a career job at 20-something years old. What if a best life was out there and I didn’t get to it because of fear and comfort?

If you’ve followed this blog, you know by now the deepest reason why I decided to study abroad. Probably the thought of studying abroad has also crossed your mind but you’re not sure whether you should do it or not.

During nearly 3 months on this journey, I’ve identified the mindset needed and things to acknowledge to make the most out of this experience:

1. Be humble – have respect towards the country you’ll be living in and its people. You’re the foreigner, you’re the one who must get used to the way things are done there. You can’t have the “we do this better” attitude. Arrogance won’t lead you anywhere. It will only make your stay miserable and reduce your chance of growing.
2. Keep an open mind and be tolerant – these should be obvious. University is a place where you work with people who see things a different way. Group work is often the norm and if you don’t have the disposition of opening your mind, accepting other cultures and points of view, then an abroad experience isn’t for you.
3. Be serious about it and work hard – it would be very foolish to invest money on paperwork, study permits, tuition, rent, food, transport, and airfare only to focus on partying 24/7. There’s a time and a place for everything and I promise that you can have fun without neglecting your studies. Once you enroll in your program, there’s no coming back. Understand that it is a serious decision and not a weekend plan that you can drop off in the last minute. 
4. Be patient – oh, patience, the virtue that we all should have but never actually work on. That, until you move out and discover that the world won’t do as you please, that you have no control over most things. You’ll need to have patience if you don’t want to lose your mind. 
5. Learn to live with others – unless you’re super rich and can afford an apartment only for yourself, chances are you’ll share a dorm with someone else. A person you don’t know. It will be inevitable to give up on some privacy. There will be habits you won’t like and frankly just won’t understand. But it’s part of it. The whole experience will make you more tolerant, but you must be willing to it. 
6. Be emotionally independent – when you make the decision of studying abroad, it is a reality that you’ll most likely be apart from the people you love. You must learn how to deal with it. Your happiness and stability can’t depend completely on others. I won’t lie, it is not easy but the more attached we are to things and people, the less we allow ourselves to grow. Relationships are super important, but it’s just as important as learning how to be comfortable just with ourselves.

So are you up to this? Are you ready? Then start (or continue) saving money, evaluate your options and jump in. You won’t regret it.