It has now been almost three weeks since I returned from the Netherlands, and during this time, I have given considerable thought to my trip. Especially now that I am surrounded by the familiarity of my home, I have come to realize just how special my experience was. Not only did I have the chance to visit the Netherlands, something I wanted to do for a very long time, but I had the chance to study a topic that is greatly interesting and meaningful to me (sustainability), and explore the country with my peers and friends all at the same time. This was a lot for just a few weeks, though, and it forced me to learn some things about myself and how I should go through the world. I don’t think I would’ve ever had the chance to confront these aspects of myself and life if I hadn’t had this experience.

Lesson One: Always act with purpose

One thing you learn when you have a very limited amount of time in a city with more interesting things to do and see than you could possibly manage to visit is how to act efficiently. This is especially true when you are splitting time between leisure and education, and want to maximize both experiences as much as possible. All of this is summed up perfectly by the maxim “work hard, play hard”. When on company visits or group tours of historical museums and sites, I had to be as present as possible to gain as much information as I could and to allow myself to be able to complete the necessary assignments for the course. It would have been easy to check out and to allow myself to treat these aspects of the trip as an extension of the leisure time, but I would have made it harder to complete my work and would’ve actually taken time away from my free time. On the other hand, when we had free time, I learned to be present in that moment to appreciate where I was. There is a time and a place to be worried about grades and emails and all that sort of stuff, but that time and that place is not when you’re in a foreign country exploring an exciting new city. It is extremely easy, especially thanks to technology, to blend work, relaxation, exercise, and socialization together–but it is important to recognize where boundaries should exist, and to focus on what the purpose of what you’re doing actually is. It was important to remember throughout the trip that I was a student first, which was the ultimate reason why I was in the Netherlands. This context helped me make decisions that supported my learning and kept me on track. Additionally, I spent with purpose–I created a budget and kept track of every purchase I made. Because I kept track of my spending and watched where I was allocating my money, I don’t feel as though I made any poor purchases or spent irresponsibly. This also gave me an idea of what to expect the next time I travel abroad, especially to Europe.

Lesson Two: Recognize your limits

Unfortunately, you can have too much of a good thing. It is possible to overeat, to oversleep, to have deleterious amounts of fun. That being said, it is important to know when to call it quits while the going is still good. There were a decent number of days on the trip where we had very early start times to our day–7:30 am, 8:00 am, etc.–and it took a great deal of maturity to recognize AND take the steps needed to ensure I would be able to be successful in our mandatory educational activities for the day. As fun as exploring Amsterdam with my friends was, it wasn’t worth making the next day miserable because we didn’t know when to call it a night. I also had to plan out time to complete my classwork, something which wasn’t nearly as fun as listening to the symphony in the park or visiting the Van Gogh museum, but demanded my attention all the same. I knew I needed a little over an hour each day to do this work, and I allocated time to it because I’m the kind of person who would be worrying about getting it done if I didn’t. There were times when I had to say no to my friends because I knew that I needed to do my own thing to be successful. That’s not easy to do at all, especially with a young mind that is extra susceptible to instant gratification. But because I made these choices, my trip was a success.

Lesson Three: Hills worth dying on are exceedingly rare

There were many moments throughout the trip when I was tired, hungry, aggravated, and extremely frustrated. In those moments, I was far from being the only one who felt the same way. Sometimes, even the smallest disagreements, such as where to eat, would spiral out of control. I would have to remind myself that these issues really weren’t worth arguing over, and especially weren’t worth my friendships. As it turns out, there really are very few issues in the world that are that serious, and we encountered none of them. Often, just by being willing to compromise, the issues I encountered between myself and my tripmates would work themselves out on their own. This likely attests to the good-naturedness of my peers more than myself, but the principle holds for everyone equally. Of course, the situations I was in during my trip were low stakes, but there are plenty of real-world situations where having this sort of flexibility is much more crucial. In the workplace, especially, I will need to be able to be a team player and to put the needs of a group ahead of my own preferences. I think this trip definitely helped me see the importance of keeping a level head and a willingness to compromise.