Talk With My Parents

How the thought and plans of studying abroad were discussed with my parents.

The thought of studying abroad was not even brought up by me the first time my parents and I talked about it. My good friend Emma was the one that got the wheels turning instead of it just being a cool thought. After the idea was brought up my parents and I had to discuss whether my funds would transfer over to my study abroad center. My college is funded by multiple scholarships and the Texas Tomorrow Fund, without these funds, I would be in immense student debt which my parents and I are not fond of. After finding out my funds would transfer we talked logistics. Where can I get a half-year lease? What courses do I need to take before going over? Am I required to get the COVID-19 vaccine?

My parents were excited for me to travel since neither one of them had been to Europe and when I had plans to go they were canceled because of COVID-19. My parents were, and still are, proud of me for being brave enough to step out of my comfort zone and learn a new language. My mother wanted me to learn Spanish at a very young age by my grandmother but it just never happened. Both my mom and my dad know how important it is to know a second language in the workforce, especially in the health care field, and encouraged me to learn Spanish. With my career goal to become a nurse, learning Spanish and interning in the health care field overseas sounded like a great idea to my parents.

We talked about insurance and how it would be covered by the school and what exactly is covered on it. We discussed what would happen if I were to ever get COVID-19 what the school would do with me if I were to have to pay for my accommodations at a hotel or quarantine in the host home. We spoke about traveler's insurance and what I would need to buy in case my program were to get canceled by COVID-19. We made plans to renew my passport and scheduled out how long it should take to be processed and sent back. We talked about debit cards with no transaction fees, telephone plans overseas, what time we plan to communicate with each-other, who would be my emergency contact, etc... In all, any question you can think of we talked about it at one point in time.