I arrived in Bogota on January 1st, 2025, marking the start of my new year. Unfortunately, I did not feel like I was brimming with the motivation and excitement that we typically hope a new year brings. Instead, I felt lonely and scared. I had fallen in love with Medellin, and I had lost the optimistic attitude that I was armed with when I landed in Colombia for the first time. How exciting that I’ll get to make a bunch of new friends! Had morphed into How tiring that I have to make new friends all over again…
If I could go back in time, I’d probably tell myself to chill out with the dramatics. But of course, in the midst of hard times, it’s so much easier to feel like the world is ending.
I am happy to say that I have found a handful of friends that mean so much to me and have reignited the fear of having to say goodbye again. While it’s sad (perhaps an understatement) knowing that by June we’ll be scattered all around the world, unlikely to live in the same city ever again, I feel a strange type of gratitude knowing that there are people in my life that it will be hard to say goodbye to. If there’s anything this year abroad has taught me so far, it’s that life shouldn’t always be about the avoidance of suffering. Real love comes with a very big risk of getting really hurt and hurting other people really badly, but it is worth it a thousand times over.
As I cross the halfway point in the semester, I also cross the halfway point in my year here. It is wild to think about the sheer volume of experiences I’ve been lucky to live through, while also feeling like the time has absolutely flown. I know that six months in, I must be different from who I was when I began this adventure. On the face of it, what I’m doing every day seems similar to my life in Montreal. I wake up, go to my classes, cook meals, and spend time with my friends. But these days I’m appreciating all the (not so) little ways life looks different here. I am learning in a second language. I greet and depart all my friends with a little cheek kiss and a warm hug (no matter what!). I attend salsa and bachata classes in my free time. I spend time with people who grew up in countries all over the world.
I must admit that life abroad is full of chaos, and not always the welcome kind. It’s hard to feel like I need to always be happy, or that I need to make the most out of the limited time I have. I think my time in Bogota so far has been a process of learning two things, both of which I am very much still learning: how to Be Still and how to Balance. In regular life, and perhaps even more on exchange, there seems to exist a pressure to capital L Live, All The Time. Even if you’re resting, that should be a part of the Living and the Experiencing. I’ve been starting to understand that there is something beautiful in being where your feet are when the world seems to be screaming at you to Go Go and Go!
And finally, I have been constantly reminded of the importance of balance. Sleeping, eating, and exercising well are non-negotiables that constitute the boat that carries me through life’s waters. Human connection, the lighthouse that guides me. And all there is to experience in life, activities and knowledge and novelty, the waves that lap at the ship’s sides.
To navigating the rest of my year with gratitude and kindness.
The McCall MacBain International Fellowships are open to undergraduate students of McGill University, University of Manitoba, Dalhousie University, and McMaster University, along with recipients of the McCall Huron County and MacBain Niagara Falls Scholarships studying at any Canadian institution. The Fellowships accept applications between October to January each year.