YANG Xiaohua, Alice

Student of The University of Adelaide, Australia
Exchange to Nagoya University, Japan

As cliché as it sounds, my overseas experience was like a roller coaster ride. At the end of it, I had the time of my life, came out stronger, more capable and self-confident, and ready to take on an even bigger ride.

Although Japan and the exchange itself were worthwhile just on their own, the thing that made the exchange so memorable for me was the diverse range of people who shared this journey with me. As nervous and excited as I was, being in a new environment with a bunch of new people cultivated deep and real relationships that go beyond the exchange.

I have met some of my best friends on this exchange – people that I feel I have known for years, and even now we continue to share that same closeness even though we have returned to our home countries.

The experience was better than I could have ever expected and that was all due to how accommodating my host university was and how wonderful the Japanese, teachers and administrators were. Additionally, with the help of scholarships, I was able to live in Japan without the anxiety and worry of money and was able to use the additional savings to experience and travel around Japan.

I am deeply grateful to the host university for the unique opportunities, which made my exchange that much more valuable. These opportunities were not only incredibly rewarding but also highly beneficial in terms of building my self-confidence, skills, and capabilities in innovation and creativity.

I have learned a lot about myself and achieved my most important goals which I most likely would not have achieved if I had stayed in Adelaide.

I learned that when placed in an unfamiliar place and given a fresh start, I am able to adapt well to the new surroundings and feel more comfortable expressing myself than I do at home. I also learned that I might have been limiting myself from making the most of my university years. Instead of being a homebody and placing university study as a priority, it might have been more worthwhile to step out of my comfort zone and experience new things and create connections with different types of people.

Overall, the whole experience was something that I do not take for granted, something that had changed me on an individual level, my outlook on life and how I go about it. It had been by far the best thing that has ever happened to me and I continue to yearn for the times I was on exchange.

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