Strangers Building Strong Friendships

Living abroad for a couple of months to go to school is an experience that not a lot of people have. Studying abroad involves discovering a new place, exploring, learning, and meeting new people. Study abroad is an amazing opportunity, and the relationships and friendships that are created so quickly are one of the reasons why the experience becomes unforgettable.

I feel like it’s crazy to think about how fast a group of strangers can become so close to each other. There are 19 people in my study abroad program from 3 different universities. You would think that because we go to 3 different schools a lot of us would know each other before and that people would stick to staying in groups with the students at their schools in the United States. In reality, I only really knew one other student from Drexel before I arrived here in Costa Rica. This gave me the chance to branch out, meet even more individuals, and create memories with students from different places.

To me a special part about the relationships that we have is that we all met less than 3 months ago, and even with us all having different personalities and diverse backgrounds, we’ve created strong friendships. The first day that our group met was at our orientation. We learned more about our program, we participated in activities to learn more about each other, and we all still felt unsure about what the next couple of months would entail. When we talked to each other we spoke about generic things like our majors and what state we grew up in. If you asked me that day if I would’ve felt this close to the group by the end of the program, I think I would’ve said no. Our group has been so inclusive and supportive of everyone. We travel together, take hour long bus rides together, take classes together, visit each other’s host families, and so much more. I don’t know if we will all see each other again after this program, and honestly I think that there is a small chance of that. However, each one of us are a part of this experience that we are having in Costa Rica, and I am grateful for the new friends that I have made and the memories that we’ve gotten the chance to make with each other.