Balancing plans and passions while abroad

After being in Germany for more than a month, I can finally say I’m starting to settle in. The past few weeks have been filled with new people, new plans and new, wonderful experiences. I’ve also faced my fair share of logistic and emotional challenges. Only recently has it begun to sink in that I’ll be here for a year. Pair that with the culture shock of the grocery store, “the German stare” and a lack of iced coffee and it becomes clear that cultural adjustment is an unfortunately long and arduous process.

Although I was prepared for a cultural shift prior to departure, I find myself only now dealing with the emotions that come with living in a foreign place. I had, of course, experienced bouts of anxiety, but those were often tied to my worries of missing out on happenings back home. When I imagined Germany, I imagined an idealized version of myself where I’d be speaking fluent German, becoming close friends with locals and living one of the most impactful years of my life. I still have many months ahead to experience all those things; they just haven’t happened yet, and won’t for at least a little while. And that’s OK.

I’ve since realized that in imagining what could only come from months of living here, I was solely thinking of the end product and not the actual time I would be spending abroad. I was more focused on what I wanted to have done as opposed to what I wanted to do, experience and learn. I also realized that I had a similar problem with learning the German language. For years, I simply wanted to know the language; but to know, you have to learn. It was only after years of working at it that I came to (for the most part) enjoy the process of actually learning the language. 

That’s not to say that wanting to have done something automatically pales in comparison to pursuing something you enjoy with no endpoint. Everyone has passions and goals, things they want to do and things they want to have done. We grow up hearing truisms like “it’s about the journey, not the destination” and “setting a goal is the first step to achieving it,” so we might expect people to fall into two categories: people who plan or people who go with the flow. Though these two schools of thought may seem opposed to one another, a combination of the two can make any given journey — abroad or not — less aimless and more enjoyable.

At first, it might seem counterintuitive to combine two mindsets focused on unscripted-ness and preparedness. Wouldn’t a go-with-the-flow attitude distract a planner? Wouldn’t goals or structure take away the intrinsic motivation out of something that’s otherwise enjoyable? In my experience, not necessarily. 

For the more goal-oriented individual, an approach that takes the journey at hand into account means finding what makes you tick. Given that I hope to walk away from my study abroad experience with better German skills and comfort adjusting to new places, I first need to set smaller goals I enjoy achieving. For me, that means getting out of my apartment — whether it’s to a different city or simply a part of Freiburg that’s new to me. Instead of dwelling on the fact that I’m not where I expect myself to be, I’ve allowed myself these smaller steps that are both fun and achievable. Adaptations of this approach, no matter the goal, make striving toward something more sustainable, and therefore more likely to be achieved.

As for those who more often prefer to go with the flow, having a goal of any level of specificity can bring new life to hobbies and interests. Although I’ve come to a place where I generally enjoy learning German for the sake of it, setting specific goals for this coming year has reinvigorated my efforts. I’d like to, for example, improve my professional German and start writing in German as regularly as I do in English. In combining my passions with concrete goals, I’ve set myself up for extended personal growth. Having a goal or something you want to have done — not for extrinsic validation, but for the fun of the game — can challenge you and further develop the intrinsic motivation you get from an activity you already love.

The way you balance your plans and spontaneity are ultimately up to you; the point is that both philosophies empower you to pursue your goals while enjoying the process of reaching them. Do you love to craft just for the fun of it? Consider challenging yourself to learn about five new methods and test them out yourself. Have you always wanted to run a marathon, but felt unsure where you should even start? Think about certain methods you could implement in your life that would make running something you love to do. Whatever it is you want to do (or want to have done), plans and passions can go hand-in-hand to make both the journey and the destination worthwhile.

Audra Woehle is an Opinion Columnist currently studying abroad in Freiburg, Germany. In her column, “Audra Abroad,” she writes about culture, identity and travel. She can be reached at awoehle@umich.edu.

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