UMW students navigate the return back from abroad

by ALEXA DELACONCEPCION

Staff Writer

When junior psychology major Kin Dillon returned to campus after spending the Fall 2025 semester abroad in Milan, she expected excitement over seeing familiar faces again. 

What she didn’t expect, however, was how strange it would feel to shift back into daily responsibilities and routines. While studying in Italy, Dillon recalls her schedule looking completely different than the typical UMW one.

“I had class for maybe four hours one day a week, so I had a lot of free time,” she said. 

Although returning to campus brought some comfort to Dillon, the adjustment was certainly not without its challenges, the hardest part being a combination of time-zone exhaustion and adapting to a completely different environment.

“Coming back and having to work and feel like an actual human being again is kind of odd, because you’re not just doing fun things and traveling on the weekends,” she said. “You actually have to do work in school.”

Aside from getting used to the workload again, Dillon reflects on how the change in her character while abroad added to the weight of her adjustment back on campus.

“I feel like I’ve changed a lot as a person. It’s like putting the person I have changed into in a new environment. It’s kind of like readjusting all over again,” she said.

For most students who go abroad, the worrying conversation of comfortable adaptation typically revolves around being away from home. On the other hand, there are numerous readjustments and struggles students face when returning from weeks of education abroad that are underdiscussed.

Junior communication and digital studies major Emma Lusk, who studied abroad at the University of Reading in England during the Spring 2025 semester, said she didn’t anticipate much of a struggle when returning home.

“I wasn’t expecting anything to be that different. I honestly kind of transitioned back here really easily, so I was very comfortable coming back,” she said. 

Despite her presumptions, adjustment for Lusk still came with unexpected challenges. While studying abroad, she found herself becoming more outgoing out of necessity, meeting new people and navigating foreign areas on her own. In comparison, returning to campus felt much quieter and more relaxed.

“I was making my own friends and going out there and doing stuff. Then I came back here and I kind of spent every day by myself,” she said. “Not a bad thing, but definitely different.”

Emotionally, Lusk described the first few weeks back as a mix of excitement and sadness. 

“I was excited to come back,” she said. “But I was also kind of sad when I realized, yeah, everybody’s busy.”

That sense of returning to “real life” was something Lusk felt almost immediately upon returning. 

“It was super fun, and I like talking about it, but I was a little bit like, okay, back to your normal thing. This is real life now. You can’t be in Fantasyland now that you’re back at your real school,” she said.

The abroad experiences made available to students vary widely. For some, the challenge of returning is shaped by where they studied and how deeply they immersed themselves. Junior history major William Goodman, who studied abroad in Cairo, Egypt, during the Fall 2025 semester, recalled a different experience.

For Goodman, leaving behind the relationships he formed abroad was one of the hardest parts of returning. 

“You’re forced to make friendships with all these people, and then you develop them for four months. You only have each other to rely on. And then you’re just like, ‘okay, bye.’” he said. “You kind of have to accept you’re not gonna see a lot of these people again in your lifetime.”

He also described the cultural whiplash of returning to campus life after adjusting to a very different lifestyle overseas. 

“You kind of get back, and you’re like, okay, guys, let’s go to Target,” Goodman said, noting the shift from an extravagant, fast-paced environment abroad to a more familiar routine at home.

Despite each student’s different experiences, each of them emphasized the importance of routine and familiarity when adjusting back to campus life. Dillon said getting back into a structured schedule helped ground her after returning.

“Seeing my friends again and getting into a routine of having class and work helped a lot,” she said. “Abroad, I didn’t have a routine, which is nice in some ways, but you don’t get as much work done.”

For students preparing to return from abroad, Dillon emphasized the importance of patience and self-compassion. 

“Prioritize how you’re feeling and your emotional well-being. If you need help, reach out to friends who care about you,” she said. “They’re going to be there for you and you won’t have to do things alone.”

As students continue to settle back into campus life, adjustment doesn’t happen all at once. Instead, it unfolds gradually through routine, reflection and realization that the study abroad experience doesn’t end when the plane lands. It continues shaping students long after they come home.