How Study Abroad Changed My Life Before I Even Left

Written by: Maggie Neuman

Major: Business

Location: Burgos, Spain

When I signed up to study abroad, it was obvious to me that it would impact me positively while I was away. However, I never anticipated how studying abroad would impact me before I even left. Now, here’s some background on me and how I got here. My name is Maggie, and this fall I am studying abroad for the semester in Spain. I am double majoring in marketing and Spanish and while abroad I will be studying Spanish. This summer I worked at Gentex where I assembled car mirrors. Knowing that I would be going on potentially the most epic adventure of my life impacted me both on a personal level and impacted my interactions with my coworkers while working in the factory.

In terms of the personal impact of study abroad on me this summer, I was terrified to work in a factory as I had never done it before. I worked in an ice cream store for four years before this summer but there is a negative stigma towards factory work that made me fearful to do it. I was scared that I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the people who had been doing the same job for years which for the first few weeks ended up being exactly what happened. However, knowing that the money I was earning was going towards travelling to Spain kept me motivated to go in to work at 6:30 or 2:30 every morning. In addition to the typical 40 hours of work a week there was also a fair bit of mandatory overtime which is why I would go in at 2:30 some mornings and in on some Saturdays. I certainly didn’t want to be going in at these times as I would have rather spent time with my friends and family or even just sleeping in but in the back of my mind I knew that the extra hours I worked would pay for a plane ticket to get me to any part of Europe I could dream of in the fall. As a result, I showed up to work every day with an oddly positive attitude despite the circumstances. This positive attitude overcame all of the exhaustion and minor social anxiety I was experiencing from working at the factory. I ended up really enjoying my work on a personal level all due to the fact that I am leaving for Spain in less than two weeks.

The prospect of me being in Spain also had a significant social impact on my work this summer. Because Gentex is a very clean factory with air conditioning, I wasn’t afraid of working there because of the work itself, I was afraid of letting the people down who were already working there by being slower than they were. I am also generally a shy person so meeting new people can be stressful. I did end up working with around 100 different people who were all anywhere from 5 to 45 years older than me. I would have thought that my coworkers wouldn’t have liked me very much because I was only working there for the summer in order to pay for school and Spain whereas this job was their career. From what I could tell after people found out that I was going to Spain, they initially thought I was entitled which was understandable. From the offset, studying abroad can be viewed as an opportunity to goof off. Part of the reason to go is obviously to have fun but ideally those of us that go will also come back as better, more worldly people. My coworkers also hadn’t had this amazing opportunity and wished that they were able to experience it as well. So it was awkward for the first few weeks as I juggled people’s assumptions of me and tried to not be terrible at the work I was doing.

However, at a certain point, everything got better. I worked very hard every day and the people I was working with noticed. Because I was trying, they were willing to help me and additionally train me as needed. Despite being shy, people also began striking up in depth conversations with me about my life because what else were we supposed to do while we were working all day? The conversation often drifted to my going to Spain in the fall. My coworkers asked me many questions about what I would be doing there and what I was most excited about for the trip. They began to express how happy they were for me and that I was taking advantage of this unbelievable opportunity. They would then talk about trips they had taken and the fond memories from their adventures. Thankfully they also thought that studying abroad was interesting so I could talk about that just about endlessly. It was really nice having this giant ice breaker around that facilitated conversation with my coworkers to make me feel less awkward as I often do. It also turned out that many of the people I met spoke Spanish as a first language and were from Spanish speaking countries. They were especially happy for me and excited that I was working to learn their first language just as they had worked to learn English years ago. I had never had this opportunity to connect with people with experiences so different from mine before working in the factory. I also never would have had the opportunity to connect with them so much if not for studying abroad.

I know that going to Spain in the fall will change my life for the better, but I can’t believe that it has already changed my life so much before I even leave. I predict that I will have a similar experience when I come back and people ask me about what it was like while I was there. After such a great summer working at Gentex, I can’t wait to go back next year to work again and tell my coworkers about the adventures I had. To those of you reading this, take this as a lesson and don’t be afraid to talk about your experience studying abroad, it’s a great talking point and helps make you an interesting person!

Categories: Adventures, Spain, Business Broncos, Predeparture