By Junho Hong

Sadly, this is my last bog post as an exchange student at Temple University. When I wrote my first post, it seemed like I had a long time to finish my journey. Now, we are at the end. It is hard to say goodbye and embrace the closing of such a priceless journey. Since I came to Temple University, I have never regretted my time even for a single day. For me, these short four months were incredible. The beautiful campus, students with good energy, high quality education, and all other things were just valuable. This journey has influenced me in various positive ways and changed me a lot. I want to share how it changed my life.

Studying abroad is always challenging and it is harder if you’ve never lived alone before. I was in the same situation, but as an exchange student at Temple University, it helped me to get through this challenge more meaningfully. One of my goals that I wanted to achieve at Temple University was proving my value and finding the confidence to do whatever I wanted. There were great mentors, professors, and my teammates who brought me to the finals in the BYOBB (Be Your Own Boss Bowl) competition. Anticipating a competition at Temple University was a hard decision, but I trusted them and believed in myself. If I hadn’t come to Temple, then I couldn’t have taken this opportunity. I can’t perfectly articulate how I’ve felt in this great journey, but I can say that it gave me a high sense of confidence. Every time I came to the campus, I encountered people full of individuality. Even seeing these people changed me a lot. It makes me think about where I am heading to, and which way I want to head in the future. I am still finding who I am, and whom I want to become, but Temple University taught me a great lesson that it is way more important to focus on spending ‘now’ passionately rather than cling to thinking about my future. Temple University encouraged me to dream big, helped me to find my passion, and more importantly, it showed me diversity.

I really want to come back again if I can, and I hope that many other students can have this great experience at Temple University. When it comes to an end, I am sad and excited, but as always, everything has an ending. I appreciate Temple University for teaching me an attitude of gratitude. This journey filled me happiness, grit, passion, responsibility, and confidence. If someone asks me what makes me move forward, I will answer it was thanks to “the adventure I had at Temple University.” Not only that, but I am also so happy that I could take this wonderful opportunity to share my thoughts and stories as a blogger. If you come to Temple University, you will definitely love it. Thank you for reading my blogs since January. I hope we can meet again. Bye.