The Return of BRIC
本帖由国外金博宝教育同行顾问撰写，Ursula Dedekind '20…
Last Friday marked an entire year having passed since I was accepted to participate in the BRIC program.金砖四国是一个特别设计的留学经历，巴布森大学的文科和创业课程与俄罗斯各地的文化远足一起教授，金博宝印度和中国。It is hard to believe that just a year ago I was a naive sophomore,不知道我很快会经历不可思议的个人发展。It is easy to look at the program and see how the rigorous course load in addition to the challenge of adapting to three vastly different locations could orient an individual towards growth.Yet,I have come to realize that saying yes to a challenge is oftentimes one of the most significant and overlooked steps within the entire process.
In all honesty,我否认在三个不同的国家和我所知甚少的人一起在国外度过一个学期的可能性。When
I spoke to friends and acquaintances about the adventure I was about to embark on,the experience felt very isolated from my own life.看看过去金砖四国学生的照片，applying for my visa,and attending all of the pre-departure sessions did not make BRIC feel any more real to me.It was not until I was buying travel necessities,a daunting amount of insect repellent,Advil,and mini travel shampoos,在到达巴布森的前几天，金博宝that I was struck by the fact that I was preparing for the completely unexpected and unknown.I felt overwhelmed,wrestling with so many fears: was I going to get sick?Would I make friends with the cohort?我会想念我的家人吗？我能适应吗？我害怕未来，最糟糕的是我对自己做了所有这些。我本来想继续玩金砖四国，填写申请表，got into the program,and accepted the invitation.It was all on me.
Within days of the program's start I convinced myself that I did not want to study abroad anymore.Up until this point I had taken many risks in my life,yet this time I thought I had pushed myself a little bit too far,问我是否能接受挑战。虽然我母亲向我保证，如果我不想去的话，我不必去，我知道我不能让自己的恐惧阻碍我一生的经历。
只在你应该出现的时候出现，很容易说“是”。however immersing in an experience fully is another story-it takes courage to be yourself.Once our pre-departure sessions started my anxieties had not dissipated.我和这个小组保持联系，害怕被拒绝和易受群体伤害，所有我以前不认识的人。After holding back from volunteering to participate in a group bonding activity,which required sharing a personal story,I realized something had to give.In order to get the most out of the BRIC experience I found that showing up was just half the battle,我必须把行动奉献给言语。为了学习和成长，你必须脆弱，犯错，订婚。As soon as I started to embrace sharing myself with cohort,letting them get to know me better,我能够在一个更深的层次上联系到团队内部以及在每个地方围绕着我的文化中。
Sometimes life scares us,但重要的是要认识到我们生活中的这些关键点是反思我们已经走了多远并继续信仰飞跃的机会，plunging ourselves into new experiences.这一切都始于对一个简单的三个字母的单词“是”。