I have always been a “go with the flow” kind of girl. When asked if I want to walk around Philadelphia, go to the mall, or see a movie, I always without hesitation say yes. However, when I am outside of my normal surroundings, with no sense of direction I unfortunately allow my anxiety to take over. My biggest crutch in life has been my fear of the unknown. For a while now I have wanted to concur my fear of the unknown and finally push my anxiety back into the closet.
I knew my best bet to beat this fear was to force myself out of the country without my family and close friends. What I love about Temple University is their drive to get students to study abroad. I attended a number of study abroad fairs, narrowed down my choices, and finally decided on the School of Media and Communications Dublin Summer Program.
On May 20th I arrived in Dublin, Ireland. Upon arrival I had no idea where I was living, who I was living with, and where I was taking classes. As you can imagine my anxiety was through the roof. With no IPhone to the rescue I was forced to find my way around this unknown city. I made it through the first day, only to find myself in my room, overwhelmed, longing for Philadelphia.
As the first week ended, I noticed I was doing a pretty good job of avoiding areas that I considered “unknown.” It hit me that I only had one month to explore Ireland so I decided to take some advice that Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “Do one thing every day that scares you.” On the days that I would walk home from school I would swallow my anxiety, turn down an “unknown” street and to my surprise my anxiety stayed neutral. Eventually I was wandering around Dublin with no problem.
As our first three day weekend approached, a couple of my friends and I decided to plan a two-day trip to Cork, Ireland. I remember almost backing out because I was unsure if I wanted to leave Dublin and be in another “unknown” city. I gathered up my courage, got onto the bus and started my adventure to Cork, Ireland. The trip was problem free, and we made it safely back to Dublin. As my Dublin experience continued I was beginning to realize that being in an “unknown” area really is not that scary.
Each weekend I became more and more comfortable leaving Dublin and experiencing the “unknown” cities and towns Ireland has to offer. This six-week experience in Dublin, Ireland has taught me that not everything “unknown” is scary. That sometimes you need to face your fears in order to get the fullest experiences out of life. Ireland has influenced me to try and travel around the world as much as possible because sometimes the most “unknown” places can end up feeling like home.
– Michelle Barry