Have you ever imagined being able to watch the sun rise and set on the same day?  This might seem impossible unless you were on a ship in the middle of the ocean.  I was lucky enough to experience this everyday.  Sadly I didn’t take advantage of it and I wish I did.  I recently finished four months on Semester at Sea (SAS), a university study abroad program that sails around the world, visiting 10 countries on four different continents.  Towards the end of the trip I started doing things that I wish I had done in the beginning.  I would go out and watch the sunset with friends, take advantage of all the downtime we had and play games with the friends I had made.  Semester at Sea was a journey on it’s own as it went from feeling foreign to feeling like home.

The first day on the ship was very different than the last.  I remember the first time I walked around the ship, I felt so tiny in all of the huge rooms.  The dining room was gigantic and the multiple staircases felt so unfamiliar.  I wanted to explore but I was afraid of getting lost.  I also didn’t know anybody out of all the 700 people living on the ship with me. (Except for my family, of course.  But I was sick of them. JK, sort of).  It was a very unsettling feeling, but it ended up being easy to make friends.  Our cabin didn’t feel very homey either at first.  It wasn’t a very big room, so it felt a little cramped.  After we unpacked all our stuff, it felt a little better. And as we lived in it, the space became more our own.  It’s so surprising that the ship I thought was scary, turned out to feel like home.

The middle part of the Semester at Sea leg seemed to drag a bit.  I started missing the excitement of how fast we moved from country to country on our own.  Even so, during our days at sea, I loved being able to reflect on the countries we went to and have time to learn about the ones we are going to next.  I got used to the daily schedule at sea — days were divided into A days and B days with no weekends.  A typical day started with Lifelong Learner meeting (on B days), Global Studies, self-study time, lunch, hang out, writing tutor, nap (maybe), Spanish tutor, then dinner, and maybe watch a movie with friends.  At times, it became a little boring, but it was nice to have a steady schedule for a change.

The end of the voyage was definitely the hardest part.  Since we would be leaving the ship, that meant I would again have to lug around my gigantic suitcase, named Bear (yes I named him).  Fitting everything into my suitcase was much harder than I remember.  Either my suitcase shrank or I had more stuff. I was definitely out of packing practice. I even pulled a shoulder muscle trying to cram it all in.  Anyway, the last night was the hardest part.  So many students stayed after our last pre-port meeting and cried.  Everyone was a mess that night, I’m still very depressed about leaving and saying goodbye.  The last month and a half on the ship flew by.  The end really crept up on me.

Isn’t it amazing that what started out as a big, foreign place, turned out to feel like home?  Gradually, the ship felt more like home everyday.  It wasn’t just that I knew my way around, but I had made so many new friends in the four months on the ship.   It was definitely hard to say goodbye to them. Looking back, I made so many memories on the ship.  I’m so sad that this SAS experience is over, but I’m excited for the opportunity to come back in five or so years as a college student.  It will be very different as a 20 year old, but I can’t wait.  I also want to give this experience to my own kids one day and hope to sail with them.  While I’m sad to leave all of my new friends and new home, I’m also looking forward to the last leg of our trip, Europe.