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Anna Bedell鈥檚 semester abroad in Milan wasn鈥檛 all pizza and pasta ... it was a lesson in risk-taking and pushing through fear.

I called my mom, tears in my eyes. I told her I was terrified I wouldn鈥檛 make any friends; I wouldn鈥檛 adjust to the culture; and I wouldn鈥檛 do well in my classes. I thought, Maybe this wasn鈥檛 the best decision. Maybe I shouldn鈥檛 have gone abroad.

I had been in Italy for less than 24 hours.

I had chosen to do an exchange program at Bocconi University, a premier business school in Europe鈥攁nd an amazing opportunity to earn some elective credits through the First-Year Global Experience (FGX) at Leeds School of Business.

And now, here I was in Milan, fearful, excited and steeling myself for a fall semester like no other.

An Attitude Adjustment

The acclimation to Italian culture was difficult. My sense of direction was horrible, and with all the buildings looking somewhat the same, I was using Google Maps just to get two blocks from my apartment. Since one-stop shopping doesn鈥檛 exist in Milan, I spent a full day running around the city, getting a SIM card from one store, food from another and bed sheets from a place across town. I was forced to use the trams and metro system, which, frankly, freaked me out. I had never even been on a train before, unless you count Denver airport鈥檚 shuttle train between concourses.

There was an obvious language barrier, and my couple of months of Duolingo Italian did not prepare me for conversations with the locals. Thankfully, nearly everyone in Milan spoke English to some degree, and once they heard my American accent and bungled pronunciations, they quickly switched to English. But that was frustrating at times鈥擨 had hoped to practice my Italian and had even learned how to place my gelato order perfectly.

Despite all this, the longer I lived in Italy, the easier things got. It turned out I shouldn鈥檛 have worried about making friends鈥擨 made quite a few by the end of the first week, including my roommates, who were from everywhere: Amsterdam, Sa虄o Paulo and Tokyo.

Oh Yeah, There Was Studying

Classes were both easier and more difficult than I thought they would be. The good news was that Italian universities don鈥檛 assign homework; everything is lecture-based, with a midterm and final that counts for your entire grade.

I figured my classes would be effortless. No homework meant time for travel and exploring鈥攁ll I had to do was pass. But as midterms loomed closer, I began to worry: What if I didn鈥檛 pass? After getting a terrible midterm score, I realized that studying abroad was about living abroad, traveling abroad and studying abroad. It was an important lesson, even though I鈥檇 had to learn it the hard way.

It made me realize that the experience of being a student at an international university was one of the most amazing parts of the experience. Seeing firsthand what life was like for Italian students and how it compared and contrasted with mine back at Leeds was so interesting. I also realized there was so much to learn about business from the international perspective of my Italian professors. My studies from that point on became a priority and an incredibly valuable part of my experience.

Just Me, Myself and I

One bright day in late October, I realized I had eight weeks left of my time abroad ... and panicked. How was it almost over? It felt like I had only been in the country for a couple of weeks, and I was just starting to get acclimated鈥揑 wasn鈥檛 ready to go back home. I began mourning the end.

But my friends gave me some wise advice: Make the most of the time you have left. So, I did something bold, something I never thought I鈥檇 do: I booked a whirlwind solo trip by train across Eastern Europe.

Within six days, I checked off five countries: Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, Czechia and Germany.

Looking back, it was one of the most transformative experiences of my life in terms of personal growth. Previously, I hadn鈥檛 felt confident in my ability to do unfamiliar things, partly due to how much I hated asking for help, even when I was clueless.

鈥淚 thought,听Maybe this wasn鈥檛 the best decision... Looking back, it was one of the most transformative experiences of my life in terms of personal growth.鈥�

Anna Bedell (Mktg鈥�25)

But being on my own forced me to push past my pride and fear and lean on strangers. Whether it was approaching two French girls for directions to my hostel in Prague or spending 15 minutes going back and forth with a middle-aged woman on Google Translate, trying to get directions to the bus stop in a tiny Czech town, I learned that asking for help made my trip an even richer experience.

Most of all, it made me feel more capable as an independent person. When you鈥檙e on your own, you learn to notice your surroundings and keep yourself safe. Now I feel confident that if I were dropped off at a random location without my phone, I could get back home in one piece.

Ciao, Milan

I had a new perspective on everything, especially the impending conclusion of my Italian adventure. Instead of panicking, the opposite happened: I accepted it.

I started planning for the years to come. The cities I didn鈥檛 see this time became places to visit in the future. I had a friend who was going to work in London and two roommates from Amsterdam, which meant that I鈥檇 have free housing when I returned to explore more of the continent. And someday, I would return to Milan and go to all my favorite restaurants and gelato shops and be able to say, 鈥淣ow this is true Italian food.鈥�

Nowadays, I鈥檓 interested in both the national and international news. I plan to explore job opportunities in Europe after graduation. Everything I learned from the people I met鈥攖heir cultures, perspectives and ways of life鈥攎ade me see the world differently, and I鈥檓 excited to see more of that. My journeys abroad have just begun.