If you have finished high school, you are ready to live the life and enjoy the freedom. However, getting an education past high school is very important as well. One way in which you can have your cake and eat it, is if you choose to study abroad in New Zealand. This gives you the opportunity to do both: see the world and get an education. However, there are some pros and cons to doing this and you need to be aware of that before you decide to enroll. Let’s take a look.
When You Study Abroad in New Zealand, You Move Away from Home
The benefit of this is that you can truly immerse yourself into a new way of life and a new culture, integrating with the locals. Plus, it means that you will have your weekends and spare time to see the things you want to see, going above and beyond the tourist experience. Plus, you will make local friends, who will know exactly where to go. The downside is that you are truly propelled into adulthood, having to manage bills, shopping for food, and doing the laundry. Hence, do make sure that you do your research first.
Creating or Maintaining a Social Life
When you move abroad, be that for a semester or your entire study, you will get to make lots of new friends. Starting a new social life is quite scary, but that is something everybody experiences when they finish high school and start their adult life. The downside is that you may find it difficult to maintain your friendships at home. Plus, once you are ready to leave New Zealand, you will have to say goodbye to your new friends, in the hopes of being able to simply return to your old friends. It is likely that you will find that reintegration into your old life quite difficult, because your friends have not stood still while you were away either.
Finding Work
Most students have to have a part time job at least to sustain themselves and, unless you have some very serious savings, you are likely to have to do the same, particularly if you study abroad. However, working is also character forming, and it gives you a little bit of money to enjoy as well. Plus, it means you get to practice your interview skills and learn about work ethics and more. However, you do have to make sure that you don’t put working before studying, particularly if you are in New Zealand. While it may be tempting to work more and earn more so that you can do more, studying abroad is a significant investment and you shouldn’t give up on that just because the income you get from a job is pretty interesting.
Clearly, there are ups and downs to studying abroad. Overall, however, it is an experience that you will never forget and that will shape who you are. If you have the opportunity to do it, you should certainly go for it.
