Study Abroad Essay

Here at Manhattan College, in order to study abroad you need to submit a one page easy. It's not so much a qualifying factor as it is an annoying formality. I guess they want to make sure you're serious enough about spending four months in a foreign country that you'll take ten minutes to type out some bull. So here's what I wrote this afternoon. I figured I might as well take advantage of it and put it up as a blog since I haven't been doing so well with creating some posts. So here's my little essay about "Why I Want to Study in Madrid". It's all a lie. But I don't think " I want to drink a lot of sangrias and meet some sexy exotic men" would have sounded as good.



I have always been an explorer. When I was a toddler, just learning to stand and crawl and walk, my parents gave me the nickname "Houdini". Though I was barely mobile, I had already found numerous ways to escape my crib, car seat, and high chair. Fences had to be put up in my back yard, and the child lock was always turned on in the car. Down the Jersey Shore one summer, I became so restless while attending dinner at a family friend's that I stood up unannounced and snuck home. This would not have been such a big deal had it not required crossing one of the busiest streets in town and had I not been only three years old at the time.
My curiosity for the new and exciting continued to develop as I got older. In elementary school, most of my friends planned on attending one of two local catholic high schools. I, however, was reluctant to continue at a school so similar to the one I had just spent the last eight years attending. I wanted to go somewhere with diverse people and new practices. Though I adored my friends from grade school,couldn't help wondering who and what else was out there. I finally decided on a liberal all girls' private school far different from the coed catholic elementary school I had attended. Though no one else in my graduating class would be joining me, I had no apprehensions over beginning a unique and unknown territory. And in my four years there, I know I learned and experience things I never would have had I stayed with my peers from my childhood.
Since graduating high school, I have continued my "quest", visiting numerous cities in the United States as well as several foreign countries, including Miami, Charleston, Puerto Rico, France and Ireland. Yet, though I've seen a lot, I'm still eager to explore. I want to see as much as possible, learn as much as possible, and accomplish as much as possible. I have a great appreciation for this expansive and diverse world we live in, and I want to discover everything there is about it. Because I have always been so drawn to the new and unknown, I have learned early on that there are many different ways of living and that everywhere you go you can find something fresh and exciting.
A semester in Spain, a country of such great history and culture, would undoubtedly provide me with a wealth of new experiences. I look forward to eating exotic foods, learning rare dances, and, most importantly, conquering a foreign language, one I have been struggling to master for several years. Studying abroad has always been a great dream of mine, and like my many other aspirations, I plan to tackle it with great determination, curiosity, and enthusiasm.