When I tell people that I decided to move across the world immediately after graduating high school, to a country where I don’t even speak the language to study for a year, many looked at me like I was crazy. I had planned on attending an American University in the midwest and had everything organized for my August move-in date.

As the pandemic became even more serious in the summer I knew that my experience as a freshman in university would be very different from that of students in prior years. My parents and I sat down to discuss my options, which included attending school in Europe as my family also holds EU passports. Despite the plethora of changes and obstacles brought up by the Covid-19 pandemic, however, I was still incredibly excited for this new chapter of my life.