Life Changing?

I despise when people say something was "a life changing experience" because I think that frankly it's used too often. When I hear "life changing" I think of a someone's life being completely changed around, they were an addict and now they've quit, they wanted to be an astronaut but now they want to be an oncologist, they lost or gained faith in humanity. So when I heard from people that study abroad was a "life changing experience" I kind of rolled my eyes, after all I'd been to foreign countries before, I'd even been to Europe.

Did the Summer 2009 Germany History of Medicine trip change the basic core of who I am as a person? No, but did the trip change me? Yes, it most certainly did. I'd like to think that the person I am now is the person I would have been at one point in my life, study abroad or no study abroad, but the things I did and experienced were like a catalyst, accelerating that process. If you had told me before the trip that I would come to love Germany so much I'd be plotting ways to go back or that my older brother would look to me for guidance in planning our activities in London and Ireland I would pat you on the head and dismiss you as slightly odd.

Despite loving traveling, before this trip I was terrified of it, I couldn't fathom traveling alone or without a concrete plan, but now I'm much more willing to go with the flow a little. Even more than that, the devil's in the details. Not a day goes by that I don't think to myself that whatever it was I did that day I learned the courage, tenacity, "go-get'em" attitude or knowledge (because I did gain real, concrete, can-be-put-in-a-book knowledge) to do so from my trip this summer.

I'm loathe to call this trip "life changing" and yet I would be lying if I said that this summer in Germany (and Austria, Switzerland, England, and Ireland) didn't change my life. Each and every thing I go through changes a piece of who I am as a person, this trip changed a whole lot of pieces in an immensely positive way.

Sincerely yours,
Caitlin Vanasse