Sevgi ile İstanbul'a (To Istanbul, with Love) -- or, Why Everyone Should Study Abroad

I spent only 10 days in Istanbul.

Bazaar. Istanbul, Turkey.

The flight was exhausting, I was nauseous most of the trip because my stomach is keen enough to collect all stress I might be feeling, and because much of the beef there didn't agree with me. I never slept. My average hours of sleep per night hovered around five. Fifteen of us were constantly corralled, shuffled, directed, and collected to numerous site visits and expected to absorb endless waves of information, implications, and impacts. The blisters from wearing heels --  in a city where 90 percent of traveling two to five miles is done by walking --  have only now nearly healed completely.

Spending 10 days in Istanbul has been the most unexpected pleasure of my short life thus far, and I have every intention of going back.

Study Abroad Group -- Istanbul University.

Since I've been back and slowly returned to a regular routine, I have found that my patience and stress tolerance have increased. I still grit my teeth, make a snap remarks, or squint my eyes in impatience and sarcasm -- but it takes a little longer getting to that point at least. My neurotic tendencies take longer to surface in difficult situations.

Impossibly small details still scream at me while I genuinely try to pay attention to someone talking about an inane topic, or being rude, or taking too long to get to a point. But, even while I'm struggling to maintain focus on them after already concluding what they need from me and what other things I could be accomplishing in the time they are wasting, there is a sense of serenity that has replaced the frenetic nerves of my mind as it outpaces my stumbling tongue. I don't move immediately to do what they haven't asked yet. I smile, listen harder -- accept that even if I understand already, they still have more to say to me.

At CNN Turk.

I appreciate familiar things more, which in turn gives me more patience for them. There is a noticeable change in my outlook. Somehow, experiencing the incredible differences and expansiveness of the world has made it possible to understand how things are more similar and united; the world is larger, but society is smaller.

I am more confident, more certain of who I am. I can laugh at the past, enjoy the present, and plan for the future. Tolerance has improved, and there is a feeling -- almost of benevolence -- at being able to adjust to others; other people, other places, other situations, other wills and desires than your own. I think this feeling is very close to humility.

Study Abroad Group, Milliyet Discussion.

Details cause less irritation, less nervous worrying and fretting. Relatively small issues that had such a large impact on my life before are recalled with embarrassment. How could it have mattered so much to me when it is so trivial in relation to so much else? It is more efficient, more impactful to disregard the trivial -- to recognize the trivial. Focus has moved from the tree to the forest.

Hagia Sophia.

Observations are more keen and less assumed. Friendly curiosity has replaced skepticism and doubt. You accept a lot more after this kind of experience. You accept it because you long to know, to understand, to feel the broadening of your boundaries, and the dissolution of your limits. You grow and begin to feel the connectedness and camaraderie of others -- you grow to be a part of it.

Brand is You workshop.

You will make so many friends. People you never thought you would get along with will reach out to you, accept you, and together you will build bonds based on shared experience, tolerance of differences, and the process of learning. You will find similarities in one another, but more importantly, you will be fascinated by the differences and hunger to know more about the unknown. They will not just be your friends -- they will be your peers. Later, when we graduate and find ourselves working in our careers, I will remember the discussions we had and the questions we asked each other. If I am so lucky, we may even work together indirectly, and the friendships we built will be invaluable to our work.
                                                                     

At TV8.

You grow, and you recognize in yourself the capacity to grow. It's the odd feeling of having a birthday, and years later discovering that somewhere along the line you have matured beyond thinking an age gave you that ability. Experience, and what you do with that experience, becomes the knot -- the hard, grainy place in a tree where a new branch emerged. After leaving the things you love and going abroad to learn all the things you need to learn there -- and falling in love and leaving the place you grew to love for the place you knew you loved -- you emerge.

 I did.