My Journey To California - By Jenny Sundblad
MY Journey TO CALIFORNIA
I honestly can only encourage others to take a step towards something unknown as I did
By Jenny Sundblad, Student Worker with The WELL
I came to SBCC two years ago as an international student from Sweden. The biggest challenge in my life was moving to California. I was traveling to Santa Barbara with a company called STS because it felt safer to go with a company that knows where I’m going to be and is there to help me through the first few days and weeks. I choose Santa Barbara because I always wanted to go to California and a friend from my hometown studied in Santa Barbara before and said I should definitely go there too because she loved everything about it, the environment, the school and just how to live there was completely different than living in Sweden.
So I decided to go and see the city for myself. Because home is now on the other side of the earth the 9-hour time difference doesn’t only make it complicated to stay in touch with friends and to talk to my family but it also takes me an entire day to get back home. To be away from my family and friends is so hard and I miss them all a lot but coming here definitely changed me for the better.
Some ideas you can use when you miss your family and friends are to catch up with them through WhatsApp or Facetime to make them feel closer. Meeting up with friends who can boost your mood really helps. Exercising also helps me a lot through tough times and it’s important that you have your own activity that makes you feel good.
My journey to Santa Barbara has helped me to be truly independent and has helped me make my own decisions based upon what really is best for me. I used to struggle with making exactly those types of decisions and was oftentimes not sure wherever or not I am doing the right thing or moving towards the right direction. But now, I feel way more confident to make important decisions because of all the experiences I have had and the knowledge that I have gained these past two semesters.
I love every bit of my journey here, exploring a whole new country and making friends for life. I honestly can only encourage others to take a step towards something unknown as I did.
Sometimes the greatest things are out of our sight at the moment. But in reality, they are holding something special for us to be discovered.