The Gifts Brussels Gave Me

This is my final post regarding my time in Brussels. I thought that I would focus on the overall lessons that I learned through my experience. There were so many things that I gained from this experience. It really is hard for me to talk about all of it in a short blog post, but I’ll definitely try to highlight the most important parts. 

Of all the things that I experienced and gained in Brussels, by far the biggest transformation I felt was in my own personal confidence and self esteem. I have never felt that confident in myself in my entire life. When I first arrived, I was just coming off of a really tough semester, my mental health was low and I had a really hard time believing in my own abilities. However, over the course of my time there, I felt myself transform. I was able to live, go to school, and work in one of the most politically important cities in the world. I took public transport or walked everyday, cooked my own meals, budgeted my money, and planned weekend excursions to different countries. I felt like I was diet adulting, and it was fabulous. It felt like life handed me a clean slate that I could decorate however I wanted, there was no one from home to judge me or tell me what they thought I should do. Though walking in without my regular support system was extremely daunting, it was one of the best things to happen to me. I had to learn how to make new friends and new connections while also balancing work and school, which ended up making me feel incredibly accomplished once I did strike the right balance. 

When I chose the Brussels program I had many reasons, but one was that it was the program that was going to push me the farthest from my comfort zone. There wasn’t another program that allowed me to work in my major in a foreign country where I didn’t speak the language. I remember thinking, “If I’m going to jump, I might as well go to the coldest, deepest part of the water so that once I can stay afloat there I can float anywhere.” I’m not trying to praise myself or anything, but I was absolutely right in my choice. I really did live in a foreign country in a scenario that I had never lived in before, working, learning, and growing as a person. I only wish I could’ve stayed longer. 

I miss Brussels everyday. I miss my friends, I miss the freedom I felt, and I miss feeling like I really had control over my life. I know I am incredibly lucky to have had the time that I did, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t feel a pang in my heart when I think of what could’ve been. It feels like I went through a break up. I had imagined a future with the city, we had already made plans to do so much together, and I was not ready or prepared for our time together to come to the untimely end that it did. I will always love the time that I had there, and I am forever changed by the lessons that it taught me. Hopefully when the world is healed a bit more and I have hopefully become a bit more successful, I can go back and start a new journey there or somewhere in Europe. But for now, we all have to focus on staying healthy and getting better. I hope this series of blogs was enlightening or interesting. I think we are all learning and growing in the same way that I did in Brussels, even though the lessons are different and probably more harrowing. We can at least count on the fact that any personal growth is good, and it’s okay to feel that it isn’t easy or fun. We’re all in this together, and that is enough to get us through.