Studying abroad in her birth country

A year wrap-up for Avalon

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Her first BornTowning experience

Avalon was born in the USA in 2004. She left her birth country two months after she turned 10, never to return permanently. She decided to attend university where she was born which now has her on a very different WorldTowning journey, one we like to call BornTowning.

Avalon this is for you, so when the days are long and hard
you can reflect on how far you have come.

This is also for you, our paid subscribers, to shed a little light on what our life of travel has led to and the growth that accompanies it. With anything in this WorldTowning life, I will not pretend it is all rainbows and unicorns, growth is sometimes painful…but she did it! And we want to share that magic with all of you.

What does a year at university in the US look like after a childhood of full-time world travel and schooling outside the United States?

Avalon left us from her 60th visited country (Curacao) to embark on four years of education in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania last August. She had spent the previous 2 years learning to sail, crossed the Atlantic Ocean as an active crew member and she had studied her butt off to get a space at the #5 business school for undergraduates in the USA. She was months away from her 8th year anniversary of full-time travel when she boarded that plane to points north. The world was her oyster and she had big plans. HUGE! Today I am going to share how she seized every opportunity presented to her during that first year at university. How she had a bit of culture shock and what caused her to pause along the way. What felt familiar? What she missed.

This is a happy ending story of a young girl who asked to be homeschooled when she was nine because she was curious and how that curiosity served her in her first year of university. A barely 18-year-old who went to live in a country with her peers that she left 3 months after turning 10. A country that is vastly different from the one she lived in pre-2014. One could go as far as to say she was entering a study abroad program in the USA. Spoiler, she survived, but did we really think she would not? Were there bumps, yes, will some of them never make it beyond our FaceTime conversations, yes? Were there successes, yes. Were there moments when she longed for her previous school setting, yes. Was it all worth it? Absolutely.

Comments Avalon said that made us laugh:

• Most people think walking 30 minutes is too far

• Bras are expensive

• Water is always available and hot

• Toilets flush on their own

• CVS has so many choices