To everyone in the Bruin family,

Hello and welcome to my blog! My name is Maya Victoria and I am a 4th year student originally from Miami, FL. I’m a Communications major and am also pursuing a double minor in Professional Writing and Film, Television, & Digital Media. But enough about the boring stuff — let’s talk about the highlight of my UCLA experience, known to anyone who will listen as the four months I spent studying abroad in Paris.

Studying abroad is an incredibly daunting experience. The butterflies one feels as they pack their bags, ready to board a 10-hour flight across the Atlantic and arrive in a country where English is (usually) not the native language, are both positive and negative. Despite being someone who’s dreamt of my semester in Europe since I first visited when I was 9, someone whose older cousins would recount stories of their semesters spent in Greece, Spain, and Italy, making teenage Maya go wide-eyed with jealousy and awe, I, too, felt the not-so-nice butterflies. The ones that make your stomach churn with anxiety. 

I’ve always been an incredibly independent person. “She came out of the womb fully formed,” my father likes to joke. Paris was my chance to test the limits of that independent mindset. After much anguish and hours debating my options — Barcelona, Vienna, Rome, really any city in Europe — I landed on Paris. Not just because I had fallen in love with it back when I was 9, but because I knew absolutely no one in the UCEAP program I had chosen. Large swaths of my peers at UCLA were going to Florence, Madrid, and Amsterdam, and I was determined to do something completely on my own. The challenge of being in Paris, with level 2 French skills, a shoebox studio where I would live alone, and no pre-established relationships, was more than appealing. It was irresistible. 

That was December of my sophomore year. Flash forward nine months, my entire life sprawled across the floor of my childhood bedroom as I lamented over what could and couldn’t fit into my already overweight suitcases, the appeal had worn thin. What was I thinking? Moving to Los Angeles was already a big enough challenge. Now I wished to try my luck in Paris? I thought of my two best friends at UCLA, Julia and Lily, who were both going to Florence for the fall. Had I made a huge mistake by deciding otherwise?

It’s been over a year since I returned from my time across the pond, and now I can confidently say that I was 100% correct in choosing to go to Paris. The four months I spent there were unlike any other. Through my program — UCEAP’s Food, History, and Culture in Paris — the city was my classroom. We spent most days on site visits, exploring the museums and cultural locations (which are practically everywhere you go in Paris) across the city. I returned no longer a level 2 French speaker, but a level 4. Not knowing anyone in my program ended up being my favorite part of the whole experience. Having grown up in Miami, I didn’t know of anyone who went to a UC outside of UCLA or Berkeley, and this afforded me the opportunity to meet students from UCSB, UC Riverside, UC Merced, etc. Plus, doing things solo got less scary after the first week. After class, I would wander the streets of Paris by myself, stumbling upon galleries, cafés, and bookstores. It was a growing experience. It was also four months spent feeling as though I were in a movie, like I would blink, the director would yell “cut,” and it would all be over.

The point of my story is not that you absolutely must study abroad in order to be fulfilled by your UCLA experience. If you have the opportunity to do so, I highly recommend you take it. But rather, what I’d like everyone to take away from my words is to do it solo — whatever “it” may mean to you. You are going to get to UCLA and feel incredibly bombarded by the sheer amount of people and organizations here, all the while wanting to explore your campus and Los Angeles. It is okay to want to do things alone from time to time. Even more so, it is okay to not meet your people within the first days, weeks, or even months at UCLA. It will take time, I promise. But don’t let that be the thing that stops you from doing what you want to do. Walk through the botanical gardens and admire the lush greenery. Hop on the Big Blue Bus to Santa Monica and spend the day exploring the pier, Third Street Promenade, and North of Montana. Take advantage of the free tickets offered to students at LACMA. Do everything and more — and know that it is okay to do it alone. Sometimes, it may even be better than doing it in a group.

Go Bruins! Make the most of your time here. Trust me, it goes by fast.

Maya