Ok this one isn’t going to be a list. Just a story.
When I was in Paris in the fall, I got into the Louvre for free with my Danish residency visa. I decided to spend the entire day exploring the museum, which proved to be exhausting. I hadn’t brought a lunch, and sandwiches were too expensive, so I opted for a kinder bueno (chocolate bar) and a fanta. Some little girls at the table next to me saw my meal and immediately asked their parents if they could follow suit. Of course, the answer was no. They looked at me with a mixture of awe and wait - I could only imagine that, to them, I represented the freedom, and the awesomeness, of growing up. What I didn’t want to tell them, of course, is that I’m not a real adult. I’m in this weird faux-adulthood stage called “the college student” where I can eat that kinder bueno for lunch because I have few responsibilities, care little for my health and well-being, have little integrity and even less pride, and, most importantly, because I’m ridiculously poor.
Study abroad is not adulthood. It is not maturity. But it is freedom, plain and simple. And, despite the nutritionless meals and blisters from the hours of walking to save money instead of taking the tube and nights spent in cheap hostels in the wrong part of town, it feels amazing. I kind of love it.
