How do you deal with the griefs of leaving for a year to study abroad, especially when you are in high school?

Question

I will be leaving for Northern Europe in August and I know that it is months away but I am already sad and miserable about leaving my friends. How can I stop myself from being miserable up until my trip?

Answer 1

I know it sounds hard to leave al your friends and family for a year and you think you will miss out on so much that will be happening at home, but it is not bad at all.  Think of all the amazing new friends and opportunities you will get to have while you venture through Europe!  Just try to think about the good aspects of traveling abroad, and remember your friends and family will be waiting for you at home when you get back.  I hope you have an amazing time on this truely once in a lifetime experience.  You are really lucky, and stay cheerful!!

Answer 2

lucky you. your friends will still be your friends and you will be able to keep in touch with them everyday if you like due to the internet. you will have the same problem when you have to leave your new friends in europe. enjoy the people around you while you can. people come and go so quickly.

Answer 3

Man, I would do anything to be in your shoes right now. I would spend as much time as possible with your friends, maybe have a night out with them. Dinner and a movie or something like that.

Answer 4

I did it, albeit twenty plus years ago.  I don't know.  I guess it seemed so terrifically unreal up until the night before I left.  I also was going through a very different year than I had experienced previously in the year before I left - I had a growing group of friends, some of whom are still friends today.  I guess I was just so excited about all the interesting changes that were happening and looking so forward to the changes that were coming...  I just didn't get upset until very late in the game.

I can tell you this:  You will miss your family and friends terribly.  However, you will be having the most rewarding experiences.  You will have the worst possible days that you can imagine, but you will also have these days of elation, knowing that you're doing something so fantastic, so impossible for others.  Your ups and your downs while you're gone are likely to surpass anything you've felt before.

Try to look for the positives.  Make plans to keep in touch (so much easier now than in the mid-80s...).  Try to create a keepsake of some sort, a photo album or the like, to help you to remember everyone.  Accept your fears.  Remember why you decided to do this.  Revel in it.

It's going to be great.  And just wait till you have to leave the country that you've lived in for just a year...  You'll be shocked by how difficult that is. ;-)  

Good luck!