The Pre-Trip Jitters Strike

Hey guys!

I figured I would start this blog out now with one of my certificate posts, and a sort of introduction more than what you can find in the about.

My name is Brenna, and this fall I will be entering into my second year at Western Washington University. My current plans (as we all know how finicky these things can be to finalize) are to double major in French on the main campus at Western, and Cultural/Travel Play-writing (still working out all the technicalities of it right now) at Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, which is a small college that is a part of Western.

During this past year I was completing my fifth year of French language courses. I had already taken four years in high school you see, and after high school I just knew that my continued education path had to include the language. I had fallen in love with it. So between the prospect of my sixth consecutive year of studying French and trying to figure out how to work Traveling/Cultural Exploration into Play-writing; I decided it was time to consider studying abroad. Which led me to the Lyon, France program through University Studies Abroad Consortium aka USAC.

One thing led to another and I was accepted and beyond excited to work out the specifics of my Independent Study Program (ISP) for this very blog, and even more-so, to get to move to France.

Now we are T-minus 30 days, 9 hours, 58 minutes and 10 seconds (yes of course I have a countdown app installed on my phone, are you kidding?!) until I take off, and honestly the nerves are starting to kick in. Of course I’m beyond thrilled to have this incredible opportunity to live in a new country and experience a new culture first-hand, but there’s that little bubble of silly doubt too. What if no one will want to speak French with me, and my language skills don’t really improve? What if something goes wrong with my flights and I don’t get there on time? What if I don’t like escargot? Okay… that last one is only slightly real, I’m still deciding if I’m brave enough to try it. But I know that all of these worries will diminish when I get there, I meet my host family, and I start my classes. Because that’s what this is all about, putting yourself out there, and being brave enough to take on these doubts and experience the world. I’ve done the research on local customs, I’ve taken precautions, I’ve asked for help when I need it. And now? Now it’s time to go out and live. Well… in 30 days, 9 hours, 50 minutes and 34 seconds it will be anyways.