Living one year abroad - discuss the three main effects that living in another country can bring about in your personal life

     The second main effect would be learning how to accept another type of society and culture in your daily life.  Since you are living in a place with different customs and traditions from yours, you have to be able to manage in unknown conditions.  This means making new friends, learning other points of view, accepting different opinions and values, and seizing every opportunity you have to go to new places.  Thus, you will be able to achieve true knowledge. You have to make compromises; you cannot assume that every local habit is inevitably worst than the French ones. For instance, I cannot understand why French students decided to spend one year in Quebec while in France, they present the Quebec accent as completely stupid. Spending a year abroad is enriching if you can accept another way of thinking, if you are able to question your usual values. To suggest changing your mind completely or being square minded, would be foolish. The best thing to do would be to stick to your most important values, while being open to learn and enrich yourself with others.

     Finally, I think the most significant effect of living away from home, is the independent behaviour that grows inside of you.  Whereas in the first couple of weeks, you used to wait impatiently for your parents’ call, after a while it does not matter if you miss a “weekly Sunday rendez-vous” on the phone.   Living on your own far away from your family gives you a lot of experiences towards organizing your life.  Since it is up to you and no one else to go to school, clean your room, wash your clothes, and organize your expenses, it is predictable that you will have a good and strong understanding of responsibility.  You are accountable to nobody, and paradoxically, this position makes you more responsible. As you have less points of reference, you have to determine your own limits. If you are a bit mature, you suddenly realize that you are more adult abroad, when yours parents are not always standing over you.

     Living far from home, as a student, even for a short period of time, can be really hard at the beginning.  We have to remember that all challenges are tests, but it is necessary to go through them to build character.  Most important of all, it helps us appreciate everything we have.  Not realizing how lucky we are can be a really bad mistake because things do not last forever and we have to make the best out of them.