Caroline Bybee
Contributing Writer
The best part about starting a job abroad straight out of college is that you’re already terrified. If you’re not feeling it yet, I bet you’ll get there. I certainly did — May snuck up faster than you could say “I.S. Monday” and the real world loomed closer and closer with each passing day. Before I knew it, I was being flung into the post-college ether, with no map, no five-year plan and absolutely no clue which direction I was supposed to go.
So I did the only thing that made sense: I kept moving. Five days after graduation, I hopped a plane for a short-term job with a nonprofit I love to run its summer program in Panamá.
It was a stopgap between me and the real world, a familiar challenge peppered with new adventures, like arguing with Panamanian immigration officials and watching ships float through the Canal. When I landed back in the States in August, I barely had time to add a shot of the Customs and Border Patrol checkpoint to my Snapchat story before I was back in the airport again, clutching my battered passport and boarding a plane for Accra, Ghana.
I spent this fall as a Faculty Intern at Ashesi University. It was a position that I landed through an exciting partnership between Wooster and Ashesi, one that threw me into the world of grading papers and leading discussion sections almost as soon as I arrived. I loved it. I lived with three other interns — a fellow Fighting Scot, an Oxford grad and an Ashesi alumna — in a blue-roofed house in the town of Berekuso, a 10-minute bus ride from campus.
In my role, I had the opportunity to collaborate with inspiring colleagues, to mentor students one-on-one in the Writing Center, and to design and lead weekly classes of my own.
It was an incredible challenge and an exciting use of my skills.
Of course, it wasn’t all sunshine and roses. I was away from the network of support that I had cultivated over four years at Wooster: 5,500 miles away. I got lonely. My hair is blonde, so I didn’t exactly blend in. People made fun of me — in a good-natured, “laughing with you” kind of way, but still. I missed the comforts of home, including (of all things) breakfast tacos.
Still, adversity and all, it was the best decision I have ever made. Distance taught me to be patient and proactive when chatting with loved ones. Loneliness made me resilient and taught me to rely on myself more than I ever have before.
Feeling conspicuous forced me to make friends; jokes at my expense taught me to be comfortable in my own skin. Homesickness led me to share my “home” with those around me. Before I left, I made breakfast tacos as a goodbye gift for my colleagues: that going-away party with microwaved scrambled eggs and mimosas is one of my favorite memories.
I keep a Ghanaian flag in my office these days. Sometimes, between spreadsheets and team meetings, I look down at that little red, yellow and green flag, and it reminds me that I am capable of handling pretty much anything the real world can throw at me.
Graduating is exhilarating. And uncertain. And scary. Living abroad is pretty much the same. If you’re going to catapult yourself into life post-graduation, you might as well go all out.
With a little tenacity, a lot of humility and an earnest willingness to learn, it may be the best (and yes, most terrifying) thing that you’ve done yet. (Except maybe I.S. Good luck!)