by Tia Mitsis
For many young students a semester overseas, a gap year or internship sounds exciting. It sounded exciting to me too as a young university student. At the time I didn’t have the financial ability to do it. I yearned to have an exciting international adventure, I looked through the various semester abroad brochures at my university but it was a dream I knew I could not realize at that point in my life. Fast-forward a few years and here I am; an intern in the vibrant capital of Ireland, arguably one of the literary capitals of the world.
Decisions, decisions, decisions!
You don’t easily make the decision I came to. It is a risk to essentially walk away from a job and life you know to go overseas and work in an entirely different field. The decision required much soul searching and a keen sense of adventure. Everyone told me I was brave. I didn’t see it that way then. I saw it as a risk. A risk compared to the more predictable goings-on of daily reality. It is the fear of the unknown compared to the known. It was a risk I was willing to take. Now I embrace the ‘brave’ label proudly. It is brave to choose to live overseas for a period, complete an internship and experience a different life and culture.