A final farewell from yours truly

I figured I should write one last little reflection type blog now that the voyage is officially over and I'm sitting at home with full access to internet, cellphone, and food other than potatoes. Tomorrow is actually the one year anniversary of the day I decided to do Semester at Sea and told my mom (almost made her crash the car whoops sorry mom). It's unbelievable that now I'm sitting here back from the most incredible journey of my life. I'm gonna give a few lessons I learned, maybe some future study abroad student will read them and learn something, or former abroad people will read them and relate, or somebody will read it and think I'm really stupid, I don't know. But here are some of the main things I learned the semester I peaked.

1. FLEXIBILITY- That was the motto of the Fall 2014 Semester at Sea voyage and it was definitely fitting. Whether it's something small like trying to figure out which attractions to visit in Paris or our entire voyage being changed and losing the chance to go to Senegal and Ghana, you gotta be flexible. Sometimes you are travelling with a group and people want to do different things, it's okay to split up and it's probably worth it. I've learned that unexpected things happen but you just gotta go with it, if you dwell too much on certain trivial things you're not going to enjoy the chances you do have. I was super bummed about not going to Senegal and Ghana but we went to Italy and Barcelona, yeah it wasn't what we expected but I can name a hell of a lot of people who have never been to either of those countries. Enjoy the ride folks.

2. Technology is actually not as important as you think- To be honest I thought there was a pretty high chance I was going to die without internet. I may or may not have had a slight panic attack when I shut my phone off on the plane to London since I knew it wasn't coming back on until Florida. Social media is my life, I mean, let's be real my actual job was social media back at Bentley. It ended up being one of the greatest parts about being abroad. Sitting at dinner with people and getting to know them and looking people in the eye, it's a novel concept, I know. I'm glad I got to spend all that time away from the internet. Not knowing celebrity gossip for a few months was definitely worth all I got out of it. It is a little inconvenient to send the "I'm leaving wifi hopefully I'll see you there" text but it was so freeing. You also learn how to read a paper map which is a great skill.

3. Budgets are always a good idea- I actually came home with money still in my bank account, not much, but some. Chances are you will go over your budget and that's okay, I gave myself a kind of low budget just because I expected it. There are some things you don't really factor in when you're preparing to go abroad. Hostels, as cheap as they are, add up. Taxis are expensive. You do have to eat, and you will want to eat well. Splurge sometimes, don't miss out on experiences because you didn't factor it into your budget but be smart about what you are splurging on.

4. Journal- It's really hard to keep up with a journal when you're traveling so much. I'm guilty of falling behind on mine and I'm really upset with myself. I did better than a lot of people I know but I wish I had written more about the random nights on the ship when we were just hanging around or when something stupid or funny happens. It's those little things that are my favorite memories but I forgot to write them down.

5. Talk to locals- Locals are cool, they know shit. Plus they'll tell you all the sick places to visit and are usually really friendly.

6. Do stupid shit- Sorry adults you can skip this one. Don't get arrested or hospitalized, that's really stupid. But enjoy yourself and do stuff you wouldn't normally do that maybe isn't the best idea but it seemed like it at the time...

7. Make friends- If it wasn't for the incredible people I met along this crazy ride this experience wouldn't have been even close to as amazing as it was. Especially on the ship, but abroad in general, you have the chance to meet new people and create new friendships. Whether they're from your school and you weren't friends before or they live all the way across the country, you can meet some really great people. You get to know more about these people in under four months than you know about a lot of your friends from home. I can't thank my friends enough for the memories we've shared. WARNING: Leaving your new friends might be one of the top saddest days of your life. But on the bright side you have new places around the country to visit.

There's loads of little lessons that I could go on about for ages like make travel plans in the country before (shit sells out), wear a money belt, you don't need as many clothes as you think, take an absurd amount of pictures, back up your computer periodically, ship breakfast burritos are incredible..okay I'm done.

A final thank you to my loyal fans for reading this blog, I haven't read any of the posts but I can only imagine that there are quite a few spelling/grammatical errors, run on sentences, and absurdly long paragraphs. Thanks for sticking with me and helping me feel like somebody actually cared.

Peace out.