Before I left, I was really excited to come to Australia. I spent forever planning my trip. I took a detour before arriving at University. That detour took months of planning, but it was well worth it. I traveled along the east coast of Australia for about 10 days with my dad. I will get into my awesome trip in my next blog. The feeling of leaving the United States for longer than a few hours by myself was interesting. It wasn’t scary or nervous, but a weird feeling of the unknown. I didn’t know how I was going to like it, if I would make friends, if my classes would be hard, if I would just sit in my room all day, or if I would love it and want to stay there. But the unknown is what made it exciting. If I didn’t know how it was going to be, then how could I think it was going to be bad.As cliche as this sounds, the hardest part of leaving, was saying, “See you in 8 months” to my friends at New Paltz and “See you in 6 months” to my friends and family back home. I would see my family and friends often, but my summer was cut in half. I didn’t see some friends as much as I wanted to, but I know we will still remain friends. Hugging my immediate family bye was the hardest, especially my Mom; I didn’t want to see her cry because of me. But I knew the experience would be worth it. Anybody even slightly thinking about Studying abroad for any amount of time, I say go for it! Or at least look into it, because it could change your life.