In August I am flying to the Czech Republic to go to college there for three years.

I’ve never lived abroad and I don’t know how to speak Czech. 

“Why are some people content to stay in one place all their lives while others have an unquenchable thirst for new and different places?” That is a quote from a travel book I read and it is a question unanswerable for the masses. 

In these recent weeks faced with the comically problem riddled visa process and the inevitability of eventual homesickness I’ve looked back and thought, how am I so sure about this? 

I first researched foreign exchange programs my sophomore year. The cheapest option was the Netherlands and learning Dutch was starting to sound pretty cool until my Dad poetically said- “no way”.

As far as Universities go I never had a dream school or even toured colleges so after Dad said had “no way” I realized college would be a pretty good medium to start living in a different country. 

I could say whatever the flip I wanted to regarding future plans but there is a gap of implausibility between highschool and living anywhere in the world that was starting to look pretty big. I heard a lot of “You know Michegan has a semester abroad program” or “have you heard of semester at sea?”. A semester abroad was never an option, I was going to live abroad. 

It was one lonely day in Tribe filling out bubbles in service to my arch nemesis the SAT that I discovered in the back alphabetically organized pages of hundreds of international schools. I went through every single one of them, looked them up and made a list. Out of those hundreds only about three turned out to be solidly feasible because Japan wasn’t calling my name and I’m not smart enough to go to a European engineering school. 

Last July I went to Uganda for about two and a half weeks to work at a crisis pregnancy home. There I met some of the best people I’ve come across yet. Before I flew home I stayed in Amsterdam during a layover because I ditched my connecting flight

(Which resulted in my luggage being dumped) to meet with my family to then travel by train through Germany and Czechia. 

While bumbling around Europe in a dramatic cultural whiplash I suddenly found myself within walking distance of one of the schools, the Anglo-American University of Prague, that was on my list. I toured it two days before I left Europe. 

It was walking in the library and seeing the wood ceiling from the 1300s which had me saying to myself, “I have to go here”. 

On the way home during a layover in the JFK airport I was filling up my water bottle when a woman next to me lightly made a comment. I didn’t understand what she had said because she said half of it in another language. She repeated, “You look so classic Czechia. Are you not Czech?” It turned out she’s an American married to a Czech man, her family splits living time between the two countries and she had just thought I was Czech. 

I’ll take a hint when it comes my way. 

Most people I talk to say that Prague is the most beautiful city in the world and while I don’t know if that’s possible, I know it has the potential to be. The truth is I don’t know where the hell I’m gonna end up in the future, I just hope that it’s over there somewhere because my motivation comes down to this: there are people to meet in this world, there are things to see and there are a lot of adventures to be had. In other words, 

“The grass on the other side of the fence may not be greener, but it is different grass, and therein lies the enchantment.”

In August I am flying to the Czech Republic to go to college there for three years.

 I’ve never lived abroad and I don’t know how to speak Czech. 

“Why are some people content to stay in one place all their lives while others have an unquenchable thirst for new and different places?” That is a quote from a travel book I read and it is a question unanswerable for the masses. 

In these recent weeks faced with the comically problem riddled visa process and the inevitability of eventual homesickness I’ve looked back and thought, how am I so sure about this? 

I first researched foreign exchange programs my sophomore year. The cheapest option was the Netherlands and learning Dutch was starting to sound pretty cool until my Dad poetically said- “no way”.

As far as Universities go I never had a dream school or even toured colleges so after Dad said “no way” I realized college would be a pretty good medium to start living in a different country. 

Now, I could say whatever the flip I wanted regarding future plans but there is a gap of implausibility between highschool and living anywhere in the world that was starting to look pretty big. I heard a lot of “You know Michegan has a semester abroad program” or “have you heard of semester at sea?”. A semester abroad was never an option, I was going to live abroad. 

So it was one lonely day in Tribe filling out bubbles in service to my arch nemesis the SAT that I discovered in the back alphabetically organized pages of hundreds of international schools. I went through every single one of them, looked them up and made a list. Out of those hundreds only about three turned out to be solidly feasible because Japan wasn’t calling my name and I’m not smart enough to go to a European engineering school. 

Last July I went to Uganda for about two and a half weeks to work at a crisis pregnancy home. There I met some of the best people I’ve come across yet. Before I flew home I stayed in Amsterdam during a layover because I ditched my connecting flight. (Which resulted in my luggage being dumped) to meet with my family to then travel by train through Germany and Czechia. 

While bumbling around Europe in a dramatic cultural whiplash I suddenly found myself within walking distance of one of the schools, the Anglo-American University of Prague, that was on my list. I toured it two days before I left Europe. 

It was walking in the library and seeing the wood ceiling from the 1300s which had me saying to myself, “I have to go here”. 

On the way home during a layover in the JFK airport I was filling up my water bottle when a woman next to me lightly made a comment. I didn’t understand what she had said because she said half of it in another language. She repeated, “You look so classic Czechia. Are you not Czech?” It turned out she’s an American married to a Czech man, her family splits living time between the two countries and she had just thought I was Czech. 

I’ll take a hint when it comes my way. 

Most people I talk to say that Prague is the most beautiful city in the world and while I don’t know if that’s possible, I know it has the potential to be. The truth is I don’t know where the hell I’m gonna end up in the future, I just hope that it’s over there somewhere because my motivation comes down to this: there are people to meet in this world, there are things to see and there are a lot of adventures to be had. In other words, 

“The grass on the other side of the fence may not be greener, but it is different grass, and therein lies the enchantment.”