Interviewer: Can you tell me about an experience that influenced your life a lot that you felt that
you learned something?
Carol: I went a trip abroad last year during the spring and before going on a trip abroad I never
thought I could do anything like that just because I'm a homebody, I like my own friends and
family. And it was a fall semester of my junior year. I realized that I really needed to go out of my
comfort zone in order to grow just because I've been so used to being surrounded by my friends
and not really branching out. So I decided mid fall to go and before that I was absolutely not
going anywhere. I was just going to stay at UMass Amherst and something came over me. One
of my friends said to me, you will never be this young and be able to travel the world again and I
decided that I really should be able to do that and if I have the opportunity to I would be stupid
not to take it.
I got on my flight to Barcelona, it was January 11th, and I was so nervous. I remember the week
before that, I was crying to my mom and dad. They just kept saying, you are going to have the
time of your life. When you come back, you are gonna be a changed person. And I was just like,
oh my God, they're not being serious. Like, I'm not gonna be a changed person.
But they were right. I was with my two friends, which I know it's not really out of my comfort
zone, but it's the best I could get. And we went to 11 different countries and we just traveled the
world together and experienced all these different cultures, new friends, and the lifestyle there is
quite different than here. It's really relaxed and laid back. There was a saying that I read that
people here work to live, but in Europe, people live to work. I think that is so true.
When I was there, people were on the street at 12pm, people would be out drinking coffee,
enjoying their time with their friends and family. And here, you never really see anybody drinking
coffee. They're mostly running to work, getting coffee for work or running back to work. And I
really realized that I need to enjoy my life and I don't need to constantly be working, constantly
be doing something that leads to work. I need to enjoy it. And these experiences are really what
shaped me to who I am. Work won't shape me to who I am. Only the experiences do.
So when I came back from abroad, I really decided to live my life and look at my life in a
different perspective. I decided to do new things every day that I enjoyed. I tried to put more
time for myself into my day-to-day life. And before that, I was just working, constantly doing
homework, constantly doing something that will help my future. Even now, I still obviously do
that, but now I do more things for myself. Like I meditate each morning. I go to yoga, I journal.
And I realized that definitely helped me a lot to become a happier person, just because I saved
more time for myself. And I also have gotten more out of my comfort zone. Like now I wanna do
a trip alone. I also am going to travel nursing. So I would love to travel alone and work in a
different hospital all by myself. I think exposing myself to a different culture and exposing myself
to a different country all alone has definitely helped me get out of my comfort zone and try new
things.