Conor Fallon, Macquarie University Spring 2024
This study abroad experience has certainly given me a lot to think about. For the first half of the experience, I feel like the study abroad experience tamed my ambition a bit and made me reevaluate what I previously thought I wanted to spend my time doing in the future. Before studying abroad, I thought that I wanted to spend my 20s working and setting myself up for the future. I wanted to start a business and dedicate myself fully to building this business up.
After being exposed to the study abroad experience for some time, I realized how amazing traveling was. I understood why people went backpacking for a year or two straight out of college. Simultaneously, I believed that I could improve myself in ways that I hadn’t thought of by traveling. Traveling exposes people to an array of new ideas, and as an aspiring entrepreneur, that could be useful. On the contrary, it can be extremely distracting and make me lose sight of my goal. Sometimes, traveling is a little too much fun. In the future I certainly won’t be looking back at my study abroad experience as my most productive period.
However, after traveling and studying abroad for some more time, I realized that doing such a thing is only possible with money. If I wanted to backpack and travel out of college, I would need to work or find a way to make money while doing so. I’ve considered some ways that I could make this happen that align with some of my hobbies and future goals. For example, fitness is something I’m extremely passionate about. I figured that I could travel around the world, get involved with training people, and make some social media content about these experiences.
I’ve also considered living somewhere else instead of the United States when I’m older. I’m not convinced that it’s going to be Sydney, but I realize there are plenty of other great places to live in the world. This would be a big decision and it’s not something that I’m set on. The only point here is that the study abroad experience has opened me up to the idea.
Despite being exposed to a new way of learning engineering, I still don’t believe that I’m passionate about the field. I’d say I prefer and appreciate the unique style of learning in Sydney. I just don’t know if I can see myself working as a full-time engineer in the future, and I don’t know if any amount of traveling will change that.
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