Before this trip, I wasn't in any organization or did anything for UT. I had to work almost every day at two different pharmacies so I never had time to find my place at UT. During my first semester, I felt very alone and thought about transferring out almost every day. During and after my time abroad, I got to connect with students I never would have met had I not gone. For the first time, I felt like I was a part of UT and although this is something that I'm still working on, I am forever grateful for this experience.  

Coming into this program, my Spanish was at an A2 which is beginner's fluency. By then, I had taken 2 Spanish class in the matter of 6 months. After my 6 weeks in Spain, I took two other assessments and the results both came back at B2. Although not perfect, my Spanish improved so much in so little time.  

The last time I was on a plane was when I was 5 years old. I don't remember much except sleeping and having my parents do all the work. Going to another continent by myself after staying in Texas for such a long time was very scary for me, especially since I had to take planes and run around airports. Before this journey, I never would have imagined how much I enjoyed flying and airports. It became so easy for me to navigate through at the end of this experience, hopefully giving me the courage to enjoy more trips like this in the future. 

For a lot of people, going to Spain may not really be a big deal. However, I think this experience was life changing for me because it was so unexpected. I genuinely did not believe I would ever travel abroad and thought many of my aspirations would only ever be dreams. Going to Spain, figuring out how to finance it, and managing my time to plan for it made me realize that if I wanted something to happen, I had to do something about it especially if that meant having help from others. Many of my dreams are impossible with the resources I currently have, however, like studying abroad, although my circumstances are out of my control, I am able to do things to help reach my goals even if I myself do not have the resources personally.