BUS 449 Post 3: The Best of Both Worlds

Dear friends,

I will now continue telling you my story. When I was in high school, I was still quite unsure of what I wanted to do with my life after graduation. I knew I wanted to go to college, but there were a million of possibilities… In the first semester of my senior year I started working on college applications; I sent out apps to several schools in California, some of which were close to home, and then to one which was much further away, the American University in Bulgaria.

My parents and I visited AUBG when we were visiting Bulgaria the year before and thought that going there was definitely an option. AUBG is a private, American-style liberal arts university located in Blagoevgrad. Blagoevgrad is a rather small city in southwestern Bulgaria that lies at the foot of the Rila and Pirin Mountains. There were a number of pros that we could think of that helped me make up my mind to continue my higher education exactly there. First of all, since my parents were thinking about moving back to Bulgaria, they thought it would be a good idea for me to try to catch up on the culture, traditions and customs of the country. Second, since I spent years missing my friends and family back in Bulgaria, they thought that sending me there would be the perfect opportunity to get reunited with all of them. Third, the financial factor surely had some influence on our decision. I got accepted to almost all the California schools that I applied to, but some were extremely expensive. Going to AUBG and getting an American education, while reconnecting with my roots, seemed like the perfect fit at the time. All my Bulgarian friends and family were happy to hear that I was considering coming back home for school and all my American friends thought that studying abroad was “so cool” and “an experience of a lifetime,” so I decided to got fot it.
            If you ask me whether I would make the same decision now that I’ve experienced AUBG and Bulgaria, I would still have a hard time making up my mind. The truth is that there are some things and people that I love here, in Bulgaria, and other things and friends that I miss every day, who are in the US. This is the thing about growing up in two different countries: I will never be one hundred percent sure which one I prefer. I like traveling from one place to the other; I like catching up with the important people in my life; I like getting the best of both worlds.