This summer has been very unforgettable. Time has passed in the blink of an eye. When you try to reach out of your comfort zone, you would realise the importance of many many qualities. To be fearless. To be independent. To be a team-player.

I still remember how my friend’s eyes light up whenever she talks about the project she has participated in two years ago. It has been such a life-changing experience for her. I have thought about it a lot during the years. I was so tempted, what held my back was my fear, and more accurately, the naive clinging to my little little comfort zone. But this summer would be the last one as a pre-clinical medicine student and I really would love to try something new, before we are mandated to join clinical attachment to gain every clinical experience we could. I applied, despite being absolutely clueless about Slovakia (or the project), despite the daunting prospect of the necessity to communicate in English. Being fearless isn’t being 100% not fearful, it’s being terrified but you jump anyway. So, for one second, I just cast away all my doubts and fears, and sent the application form.

Every little progress I’ve made along the selection process brought me immense joy - that I had a higher and higher probability of going onto exchange in the summer, especially when we could only do exchange in the summer (not during the semester just like everybody else). It was the biggest motivation that kept me going forward throughout the semester of crazily cramming every single damn lecture into my head. The interview with Hong Kong AIESECers, the interview with a Slovak AIESECer (well the interview actually was a blackout for me, I was way too nervous), and the legal document. I still remember being so nervous before the interview. Come on, it was an interview with an European. That’s the time when my self-doubt in English loomed through my usual calm façade, again. That’s the irony of deploring mediocrity and yet, is drowning in its deepness.

All I recalled happening after the interview and before actually catching a flight was in fact, quite limited - except the emotional roller coaster that involved a lot of (people) crying, panic attacks, self-doubt, and finally exam was over and I needed to go.

It had been a very steep learning curve. Everything worked in a different way here - the bus, the school and basically, everything. We gotta learn fast and adapt. After all, we were the one who needed to deliver lessons everyday after the (honeymoon) week of training. It was so overwhelming to meet so many new students everyday. Within a lesson or two, we gotta made the leap from being strangers to role models (I hope) to them. I was also privileged to be able to teach in a different school, in a different city (or town) every week. Well, to be honest I hated every part of this initially - right after I had felt more comfortable at one school after a week (plus not getting lost on my way to the school and back to dorm), I was yanked out of my little bubble of comfort zone. But now when I come to think of it, I feel really blessed for the opportunity (and a little proud that I’ve survived).

The feeling of independence (plus traveling) is an addiction. I love our weekend trips - to High Tatras, Budapest, Vienna, and Prague. The adventure began right after we hopped onto a bus (or train) and after a few hours, we were in another city (or country). Traveling around is just so easy when you live in such a strategically located city. It offered ample opportunity for anyone who is addicted to the high of exploring the world and independence. Adaptability is so important. Within the first few hours of arrival, you gotta know your way to manoeuvre around and navigate the city where everything is different - the language, the currency, the metro, and the culture.

Adapting is so so important, particularly when life is giving you a lemon (as the saying goes). When your flights got cancelled, when you were robbed, when you were on your own - you just gotta stand up and fight and move on. And trust me, you would feel so proud that you had survived (a lot of proud moments throughout the journey LOL).

I am forever thankful for all the help I’ve got along the way. Slovaks (AIESECers) were literally defining what was meant by ‘hospitality’ when I was there. They didn’t have to, but they just went out of the way to help you. All the accompany, the background information and chitchats, I really couldn’t thank you (all of you) enough for that. I am very bad with places and I have very bad memory most of the time, the only thing that sticks into my mind I guess, is the bunch of people who have helped me - to get around (photos, bus pass & clear logistics), to live in the dorm, and to organise the amazing weekend trips. Cheers to all of you: who cried because you are proud of our teaching, who stayed till late with us every time even if you have work the next morning, who have a big dream to improve the education system.

As you move outside of your comfort zone, what once was the unknown and frightening would become your new normal. From being the only few Asian faces in Bratislava, totally clueless about how to go around the Bratislava city, not to mention between cities of different countries, to bringing friends from other projects to the Bratislava Hrad, commuting by inter-city buses everyday and traveling solo, you know that you are no longer bound by limits and your fear. You literally reinvent yourself every time you go further. The greatest reward and luxury of travel is to be able to experience everyday things as if for the first time, to be in a position in which almost nothing is so familiar it is taken for granted.

The world is yours to explore, and I am forever glad and grateful that I am not the same person anymore after ‘Educate Slovakia’, having seen the moonshine on the other side of the world.