Fluent in Life: Lessons from Studying Abroad in Spain

By: Gabby Watts

Growing up, my mom would always tell me stories about her year studying abroad in London. She raved about the experience and how much it taught her. She made lifelong friends that she still keeps in touch with and left with a refreshed outlook. Ever since first hearing about her life abroad, I knew that was exactly what I wanted to do.

In sixth grade, the first year of middle school, we were told we had to pick a language to begin learning. Naturally, being from an area with lots of Spanish speakers and attending a Spanish immersion school, I chose to begin my Spanish learning journey. I instantly enjoyed the process of learning Spanish and felt as though it came pretty easily to me. From there, I stuck with learning Spanish throughout high school, taking every opportunity to improve and becoming determined to reach fluency. When I went on to college, I kept up with my Spanish and eventually elevated it from a minor to a major. So, with my goal of Spanish fluency combined with my aspirations to study abroad and see the world, my path was clear: I had to study in Spain. And like my mom always said, it was the best decision I have ever made.

I spent this semester studying in Madrid, living with the most amazing host parents and two other girls studying abroad. They truly feel like my second family which was such a nice comfort to have in this completely new experience. Additionally, living with them was a great way for me to fully immerse myself, live in the city like a local, and, most importantly, make significant strides in my Spanish learning process. I have improved in ways I could not expect and have realized that I was not nearly as advanced as I had thought. Even though that truth was a hard pill to swallow, it contributed to one of the biggest lessons I took from my experience abroad: perseverance.

Being a gymnast for 15+ years, I thought I knew what it meant to persevere. But my definition of perseverance had been limited to a physical one. To persevere meant that even when you were tired, you had to keep running, keep pushing, and if you fell, you got up, tried again, and fell again. However, there is much more to perseverance than just physical endurance. Studying abroad, along with the many weekend trips I took during this semester, truly developed and deepened my understanding of what it really means to persevere.

A lot of these instances of learned perseverance happened during my chaotic weekend trips. There was quite a learning curve associated with how to adjust when plans take a significant turn. Those trips were great for challenging me to keep pushing and finding solutions. However, the more impactful lessons of perseverance originated from smaller, more common situations involving me speaking Spanish. After I would make a mistake in Spanish, or someone would make a rude comment about my Spanish, or I couldn’t understand a fast speaker, I would always feel so defeated. That one mistake, comment, or situation would replay in my mind. And, despite what I would want to do at that moment, I couldn’t just go mute, abandon learning Spanish, and fly home. I had no choice but to keep pushing my way through the mistakes, unknown words, fast speakers, and mean comments. The more I pushed through, the less those things affected me. Eventually, I began to appreciate making mistakes. After each slip-up, those couple of seconds of embarrassment would leave me with a lesson.

Letting go, speaking freely, and letting the mistakes come and go was, oddly enough, one of the biggest contributors to my growth in Spanish. I still cringe at mistakes I make sometimes, but I’ve learned to accept that everyone makes grammatical errors. Persevering through the embarrassment is not only an important part of language learning but also a valuable life lesson. A bad decision or a mistake shouldn’t shut you down. Instead, it should lift you up, teach you to be better, and remind you that, before you know it, you’ll be fluent in life—no matter what it throws at you.

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