Kate Henry | Spring 2024
It is strange that I only have around a month left in St. Andrews. I have wanted to study abroad since I was thirteen, and what a feeling it is to have nearly tucked away a full semester in another country.
Many things about my life here are different from back home. Academically, I only have four hours of class per week. This is a gift and a curse; I have a lot of free time for traveling and being with friends, but as a procrastinator, I could use a little more guidance.
St. Andrews is an intensely international community. In Knoxville, most of my friends are Tennesseans; here, I have friends from the UK, Germany, the States, Ireland, Canada, and Chile, among others. My day-to-day interactions are full of cultural navigation because I don’t fully understand where everyone is coming from. I don’t have a car, and using public transportation in the UK has been very different from using it in the States. I don’t cook here, I have to manage time changes when calling my parents, and most of my friends here are younger than I am.
I miss a lot about the United States: primarily, my lifelong network of friends and family, the quality of food back home, the sunny Tennessean weather, the freedom of having a car, and my pets. 
Yet this experience has been a blessing because it’s shown me what my life could consist of and not what it has always contained. Because I have so much free time outside of my studies, I spend my days taking walks, drinking coffee, talking with friends, reading books, writing both creatively and academically, and planning trips. My life here is slow in a way that it hasn’t been since the COVID lockdown. Being surrounded by this international community means that I am introduced to an endlessly wider range of personal opinions and knowledge. Not having a car means that I walk a lot more (it is really easy for me here to reach anywhere from 7-12 miles in a day!).
The word ‘perspective’ is thrown around a lot when discussing study abroad, but it doesn’t always mean the outside world. Studying abroad changes your perspective on your own life, values, understanding, and goals. I know now that I want to live somewhere that is pedestrian-friendly and environmentally conscious and has good food, easy access to international travel, and a thriving artistic community. My perspective has been irrevocably shifted, and all for the better.
More about USAC Scotland: St. Andrews>