Go. There is a path out there with your name on it. There is an adventure waiting for you to find it. You have the opportunity to change your life. Take it.
Summer is a time for opportunities. I spent six weeks of the summer of 2000 in Darmstadt, Germany. It was possibly the greatest experience of my life.
I didn't really go into the experience expecting very much out of it. I had been to Europe a number of times, including a one month study abroad in Vienna, Austria. So I was not really expecting a big adventure, or anything I had never seen or done before. I was mistaken.
The program offered through the University of Illinois and the Technische Universitaet Darmstadt included four weeks of language and culture classes and two weeks of an internship. Just being able to write that on a resume is awesome, but you can get all the details of the program from IPENG.
The things I wasn't counting on, and the things International Programs office can't tell you, are the reasons spending a summer abroad was the most important thing I have done in college and possibly the best experience of my life. No one can really tell you all what a program like this can do for you, but I will do my best to tell you why it meant so much to me.