For my STEP project, I traveled to Sevilla, Spain, to study abroad. I took classes at EUSA, lived with a host mom and fellow American student, and studied Spanish along with a class in World Politics.

Being immersed in a foreign language, I think one of the largest things that changed for me was my appreciation of communication, not just verbally, but culturally and emotionally. Living with a host mom who didn’t speak any English provided the opportunity to learn how to communicate, not just in Spanish, but how to learn about Spanish culture, how to relate to my host mom despite leading very different lives, and how to co-exist with someone from a different part of the world. Taking this lesson to the global perspective, I now understand how to interact with cultural awareness, the importance of language in communicating precisely but also the beauty in language learning and communicating imperfectly, how to deconstruct my own views and preconceptions about others to return to the basics of interaction with others. I learned how to be just Alexis, not just Alexis the American and English speaker, which helps me be more cosmopolitan.

The first and most important relationship I developed was the relationship I made with my host mother in Spain. Coming into the experience, I was worried that we wouldn’t be able to form a close relationship because of the cultural divide and the language barrier. But my host mom was the perfect example of unconditional love: she was patient with my sometimes haltering Spanish, she was encouraging when I felt confused and isolated, she was nurturing when I was sick, she was interested and curious about my life and excited to share hers, and she truly saw me as more than her host daughter – she would often tell me “eres de mi familia” – you are my family. These things in human relationships – love and respect and true caring for another – transcend language or cultural barriers. I found myself speaking with her at the dinner table for hours, I learned how to cook Spanish dishes, and  how to sew traditional Spanish flameco dresses. I also taught her some things – she had never seen African American hair, and I had fun teaching her about my hair, and she loved watching me do it. She truly taught me that human connection can transcend language and culture, and that was a huge take-away from the experience.

I was fortunate enough to travel often during my study abroad, and I was able to see 16 countries. In those travels, I met people who further illustrated my above point: they all came from different places, spoke different languages, and yet we were able to see each other as friends, not as others. For example, in Belgium with my Belgian friends, we were dancing to American music that I had grown up with and that they had learned English from, and it was a great moment of realization – that culture and language are not determinants of friendship, but can actually enhance it. I learned so much from my foreign friends, all of them my age, and all of them living lives that were simultaneously the same as mine (college students, well-traveled, going into professional fields soon) but also so different. Seeing both sides of our lives was enriching for me, and taught me to respect the variety of experiences and differences that unite us, while also making  us beautifully different.

The last person that truly impacted my time abroad was my boyfriend I met while traveling. He is a Finn-Swede, meaning he’s from an island that belongs to Finland, but is Swedish speaking. Through our relationship, I was able to stay with his family for a while and observe the same things I mentioned above: a type of life that, while being so different from my own, feels familiar and welcoming. There were times when they were speaking Swedish where I felt completely out of place, but I basked in that feeling – I enjoyed feeling unknowing for once, instead of the constant privilege that being an English speaker affords me. It was humbling. And then there were the moments where we could laugh at the same jokes, or understood the same references, where the gulf between us felt smaller. Through him, the world feels more open and more recognizable, because his experiences and upbringing are so different from mine and expand my worldview beyond my own country. I have started learning Swedish with him as well, and being able to share such a unique piece of his culture with him is so extraordinary. Being in an international relationship has taught me so much about myself as well – how I view myself in the world, and how I view others. It has been an unbelievably exciting journey of learning and discovery, both emotionally and geographically (traveling to see each other!), which makes meeting him one of the greatest parts of my STEP experience.

After studying abroad, my future feels way more open, filled with possibilities I never thought existed before. Previous to this experience, I saw my life only existing in the United States, but I have seen and loved how my life could be elsewhere. My passion for international politics, especially diplomacy, were heightened by this experience. International politics, when broken down to the most basic level of analysis, are just relations between people from different countries, with different languages and experiences, and the job of a diplomat is to be a bridge between that divide. I grew to love being that bridge: I loved learning about others and teaching about myself, I loved being humbled by my experience and also empowered by it, and I now know with a high degree of certainty that I want to work a field that has these components. I feel like a global citizen after studying abroad, and that personal change has implications for every part of my life. I am excited to see how these changes take me into the future and thankful for STEP, which allowed me to make these wonderful self-discoveries.