Five years ago I decided to be an exchange student. The only place that I’d call home, back then, was Milan. This week I will be visiting four places that in the past four years I’ve called home. 

I will be leaving the United States to go back to Milan and see my family. From there, I will be going to Denmark, which is where I spent my first year of college, and then, I will be visiting the UK - which is the place where I did my Erasmus exchange. 

It’s unbelievable how much I’ve changed in five years. I’m more confident, I know more languages, I’ve friends all over the world, I care less about what people have to say about me, I’m very determined to achieve my goals. It’s always easy for other people to be jealous of me when they see my Instagram feed, because they don’t know how it’s like to work hard to obtain something. It almost comes as a surprise the fact that I travel so much. Travelling taught me lots of things, and, because of that, I’m definitely more mature than other kids my age. I think carefully on how to spend my money and always try my best to think about the consequences when taking actions. I’ve had a few moments when I questioned my decision of moving abroad. I felt lonely sometimes, I felt like I wasn’t doing the right thing. I worked in a dusty warehouse and had the weirdest shifts, I’ve worked 32 hours one week before Christmas with finals coming up and goodbyes to be said at the end of my Erasmus. 

But all these experiences made me the person I am today. Five years ago I’d have never thought my life could turn around like this. I was an average teenager, stressed out with the Italian school system, with a barely understandable English, average grades and no motivation to do much - until I signed the papers that changed my life forever. I’m totally the opposite nowadays. I can’t settle for something I’m not satisfied with. I want to do what I want to do and I am always hungry for more. There’s no stop sign along my path. Everything happens for a reason, I do believe so, but we also have to help destiny a little bit. We can’t just sit around and wait for things to happen. We can’t be jealous of someone else’s path because we haven’t walked it. We don’t know the obstacles they had to overcome to get where they are now. My advice is - get inspired by other people, do not try to walk their path or to tear them down. You do you and you will do just fine.

- Cris