Semester Four

If my third semester passed in the blink of an eye, then this semester passed by before I could even take a full breath. My fourth semester was really a race against time and I realize that I say this about every semester I’ve had abroad, but I’ve really never had a semester like this one. In a short span of 4 months I had so much work to do that tasks like brushing, washing my face, dressing up and even having meals seemed to be so time consuming that I wished I could just skip these.

No matter how much work I had on my plate, in the first three semesters, I never prioritized school before my wellbeing and health. My fourth semester is really the only semester in my academic history where I put schoolwork before everything else. And it’s the only time that  I used work to distract myself from problems.

By the time my third semester had ended, I was just a pile of broken little pieces. So I walked into the fourth trying to hold those pieces together and carry on. Fortunately, I had so much work to get done by the end of this semester, that I had no time to worry about how to fix myself up, all my worries and energy went to completing my work. And I was lucky because all my friends had more or less the same load of work to complete, so we could work together to get to the finishing line.

I honestly don’t think I spent as much time in the university all three semesters added together as I did this one semester alone. I’ve seen the university at 4am in the morning, 3pm in the noon and 12am in the night.

This journey of studying abroad, I soon learnt, is not a straight path full of sunshine and flowers. Those ups and downs is something every one of us experience at some point in the journey, even the ones who seem to have it all together. Before we set foot on this journey, too often we only read about and see the easy side, so when we get hit by set backs, it just catches us off guard. But, it makes us grow in ways that you can be sure are worth it.

In the two weeks left, I am going to be working like crazy to pass my exams and move a step closer to my goal. I wish all of us good luck for the exam season. Viel Erfolg!

P.S. A shout out to us twenty year olds figuring it out and pulling it through ♥️