After a long and tiring day and a half hours of travelling, I'm finally back home in Brisbane. Over these past 36 hours, I have had a lot of time to reflect on the past five months of my life. I have learnt so much, about growing up and myself as a person. So I thought I would share with you some of the things that I have discovered.
On exchange, this should be your favourite word. I made a promise to myself to make sure I said yes (within reason) to every opportunity that presented itself. This may have been a yes to travelling somewhere exotic, or saying yes to something as little as a night out...even if you have Uni at 9am the next morning. I'm so glad that I went into exchange with this attitude, as if I hadn't, I feel that I wouldn't have had as great a time and made as many memories as I did. Exchange is the time to wave your comfort zone goodbye, and say yes to every adventure that presents itself. Just think to yourself, "this will make a great story to tell everyone when I get home".
Independence
Before I left for England, it's safe to say that I was pretty heavily reliant on my parents. However when I was thrown in to the college lifestyle, I had to grocery shop, cook, clean, wash and even book my own doctors appointments, and could no longer rely on the luxury of having parents. This meant growing up very quickly. But the great thing about this hurdle is literally everyone else is in the same boat. Almost everyone else I met had never lived out of home, so we all had one another for support and help. Something as little as flying by myself was a thought that would have terrified me 5 months ago, but on my way home it's no problem.
Budgeting
This was one aspect of exchange I knew I was going to struggle with. At home everything was paid for me, and I would pay for, what my mum refers to as the "non-essentials" such as clothes, going out and anything else that tickled my fancy. As I am a little bit of a shopaholic, I really had to restrain myself from going shopping all the time. I'm one of those people who loves making lists, so I would breakdown a weekly allowance I'd allocated to myself, and see what essentials I would need for the week (food and alcohol), then the rest was for me to enjoy. I found that this tactic worked really well for me, and I've even managed to make it home with a little bit of cash in my pocket for my next adventure.
Also being stingy never hurt no one. It teaches you to be resourceful if anything. So if you ever spot an advertisements for free food or drinks, pounce on that opportunity.
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