I’ll be the first to say it: I didn’t like studying abroad.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. It seemed like I was having so much fun. Didn’t anyone ever tell you not to believe everything you see on the internet?
Here I am coming clean, telling you that abroad did in fact “change me” — but not in the way most people would assume.

There’s a reason I chose Williams. I grew up in Iowa City, Iowa, where my dad was a professor at the University of Iowa. I lived next to multiple sororities, and students would regularly pass out drunk on my front lawn.

I knew I wanted to go somewhere that didn’t have Greek life. I didn’t want to sit in giant lecture halls where I remained anonymous. I knew I wanted to go somewhere where I could guarantee that all of the students around me valued their education.

Williams was perfect.

It’s also an intense and academically rigorous institution. By my junior year, I was burned out, and the mountains were cold and dark. I knew I wanted a change of pace.

When I got to Barcelona, I realized I made a huge mistake: I had dumped myself back into exactly what I had been trying to escape.

The program had 1,400 students, and I would not describe them as people who valued a liberal arts education. A majority of them were studying abroad with other members of their sororities or fraternities.
No one picked my program for its academic rigor, and frankly, neither did I. However, I had been excited about taking classes like “Travel Writing” and “The Wall: Borders, Violence, and Migration” — that is, until I met my classmates.

Barcelona attracted a certain type of ignorant, mean, and altogether unpleasant crowd that I had grown up trying to avoid.

While at Williams many people can barely sustain going out on a Friday and a Saturday night, many of my peers went out Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, in addition to the regular weekend — something I realized was not for me.

In Spain, I hated going to school, and I’m someone who loves school. I felt like I was back in seventh grade when I was the weird emo kid quietly sitting in the back with no friends. I stuck out like a sore thumb.
Students were rude, and there was a clear lack of respect for professors.
One time, a professor asked a girl to move to a seat where he could see her. She responded, “Why, like what you see?”

I remembered there was a reason I came to the College, and I missed it. I missed learning instead of feeling like I was losing brain cells every time I stepped into a classroom. I missed having amazing student-professor relationships rather than witnessing blatant disrespect.

This was not my first time living abroad on my own, so I was privileged to say that studying abroad was never going to be the transformative experience it is for many others.

Granted, some of my issues during my abroad experience had to do with my own personal life and my social circles. I didn’t make a lot of friends during the program — not that I really wanted to become friends with many of the people I was surrounded by.

I was more socially isolated than I had ever been before. I would go some days without saying a word to anyone, and to those who know me at the College, that is a miracle. However, I still missed school like crazy.
Being abroad did change me. It gave me so much more of an appreciation for the College and for people who care about their education. I’m excited about the people I’ll have around me and get to know even more.

I’m looking forward to going on a sunrise hike, attending Log Trivia, and seeing the cows on Stone Hill. And I am walking out of every seminar discussion smiling. You’ve never seen someone so excited to talk about Frantz Fanon’s “On Violence”.

I had a lot of fun moments abroad, and I did enjoy a great deal of it. I don’t regret going because I learned a lot about myself.

I believe there is a lesson to be learned in everything and that I grew a great deal from the experience, even if it wasn’t in the ways I thought I would. I also believe I desperately needed a change of pace, even if it meant transitioning from a constant sprint to a complete halt.

I want students to know not everyone has “the best time ever” abroad, and if you didn’t, you’re not alone. If you’re not sure about going abroad, I can confirm you do not need to have FOMO.

For the first time in two years, you’re thrown out of the tight-knit community you have at the College. It is okay to not have the time of your life the way you would expect to.

I now start my senior year more grateful and intentional than ever, ready to go out with a bang.

I am more grateful than ever for choosing Williams. I am more grateful than ever for a liberal arts education. And I am more grateful than ever to be in rooms with people who care.

Shoshie Hemley ’25 is a political science major with a concentration in global studies from Iowa City, Iowa.