Please describe any travel or experiences that have prepared you for the Global Engineering RAP. This can include international travel and study abroad or any travel or experiences within the US that have showed you new perspectives, cultures or languages. If you have not had the chance yet to travel, please share where you would like to travel and why. I wrote an essay about my study abroad experience that I would like to share here.

I flew to Sweden planning to say “yes” to every opportunity. I was prepared to struggle to bond with a new family. I planned to challenge myself in school, and make lots of friends. Reflecting back, I had a great year, but the challenges weren’t what I expected.

I started school. It took about two months before I could read everything I needed and join classroom discussions, but in the end the hardest thing turned out to be making friends. I would walk into the classroom early, sit at a middle desk, and hope someone would sit with me. No one did. I tried to make conversation at lunch, but I couldn’t get the Swedes to share more than 10 words. Then a corona wave swept over Sweden, school went online, and I stayed at home with my host family.

I focused on what I could affect positively: my relationship with my host family. I tried to be as present as possible at home. I started to get to know my host dad and his love of 80s LPs by listening to Sting with him while checking out cool album covers. I bonded with my host brother over food. One of the first desserts we made was gooey kladdkaka, and we shared the pride as we carried the wafting tray to the table. Later, I made turkey and squash pies (no pumpkin in Sweden) from scratch for Thanksgiving. Through mealtime conversations and sibling banter, I slowly became a part of their family. This relationship took time, but was worth it. I still talk to them weekly on videochat.

The first day back at school, the only conversation I had was with my history teacher about the economics of toothpaste. I came home and cried. But the next day, I had a physics lab with a new set of classmates, the ones who spoke Arabic and came from Syria, Iraq, and Kazakhstan. I followed them to lunch where they laughed the whole time, switching from Swedish to Arabic and back. I learned that they had also struggled to make Swedish friends; we bonded over our outcast status. We ate lunch together from then on.

At the start, I was overwhelmed with everything new. Though school was tough, I focused on the positives and the things I could control. I was able to bond with my family and make friends, which made my year great in different ways than I expected. I am proud of myself for trying again and again to make connections, even when I felt rejected. I want to continue to be adventurous, curious, and resilient going forward.