{"id":9470,"date":"2019-01-08T13:30:16","date_gmt":"2019-01-08T12:30:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/undergraduate\/?p=9470"},"modified":"2020-10-26T16:27:15","modified_gmt":"2020-10-26T15:27:15","slug":"kyanas-journey-as-an-international-student","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/2019\/01\/08\/kyanas-journey-as-an-international-student\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyana’s journey as an International Student"},"content":{"rendered":"

You step on the plane, find your seat, and finally take a deep breath. As the wheels of the plane lift off the ground, you feel your stomach rising to your throat as you whisper \u201cgoodbye\u201d the place you\u2019ve called home. You\u2019re on your way to university and you\u2019re not sure how you should feel. A mix of emotion rushes within you but you smile. You\u2019re on your way to university.<\/p>\n

In August 2016, I moved to the UK after living in China for 3 years, and in Sri Lanka for 15 years before that. I left my parents behind and with 1 suitcase full of clothes, shoes and my journal, I started the journey of my four-year degree in Events Management. I was nervous since I\u2019d never been to England but once I stepped off the plane and squinted through the foggy sky, I realised how lucky I was to be here.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The thing is, I\u2019ve realised that moving isn\u2019t the difficult part. It\u2019s when the rest of your life feels hazy, yet you think you know how things will turn out but you\u2019re still hesitant to get started on that new life you\u2019re about to live. But I\u2019ve personally found that tightening up your laces and pushing yourself to take the first step, no matter how nervous you may be, ends up being completely worth it.<\/p>\n

Like many other international students, my entire family is dotted around the globe. My uncle and grandmother in Sri Lanka, my parents in China, my sister in Cambodia, my other family as far as Pakistan and Canada. It gets harder the longer I spend away from them and even more so when I see most of my friends hop into their cars or a train and spend their weekends with their families. During my second year, once they were off on family time, I spent my time in the library to get prepared for any upcoming coursework. As you can imagine, the novelty of this wore off quite quickly. This is when ResLife came in.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>At Bournemouth University, I had the incredible opportunity to expand my knowledge of managing events when I became a Senior Resident Assistant for ResLife<\/a>; a programme built to help improve the overall student experience. I was housed with people I\u2019d now call my closest friends and that single step turned into a confident walk. I participated in surf lessons, open mic nights, the Christmas \u201cIce Ball\u201d, film nights, bike rides, and so many more. Suddenly the weight on my shoulders started to lift and my life at university drastically improved.<\/p>\n

As I go into my final year of university, I\u2019m not homesick because during my time here, I\u2019ve made the most of this opportunity and it\u2019s truly become my home away from home.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You step on the plane, find your seat, and finally take a deep breath. As the wheels of the plane lift off the ground, you feel your stomach rising to your throat as you whisper \u201cgoodbye\u201d the place you\u2019ve called home. You\u2019re on your way to university and you\u2019re not sure how you should feel…. Read more » about Kyana’s journey as an International Student<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1268,"featured_media":9471,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1638],"tags":[785,710,1124,811],"class_list":["post-9470","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-student-blogs","category-undergraduate","tag-international-student","tag-international-students","tag-reslife","tag-undergraduate"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9470","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1268"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9470"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9470\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9475,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9470\/revisions\/9475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9470"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9470"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/student-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9470"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}