Thinking back on my semester abroad, I was often worried about how I would track how I grew during my semester in Spain. I was concerned that I would not be able to track the things I accomplished and how far I had come during the four months that I lived abroad. In this period of concern, I created SMART goals to track my progress during the semester. SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound) goals are a great way to track tangible progress in a space or task. For example, my SMART goals at the beginning of my semester were as follows:

✅Have a meaningful conversation with 20 people on my program
✅Travel to Portugal
✅Travel to Andorra
✅Visit four other cities in Spain
✅Practice speaking Spanish once a day
✅Interact with two+ local students
❌Find a study spot on campus
✅Travel solo once
✅Join a local activity

As you can see by my list, these goals (personal, travel, and school-based) helped me have a direction for what I wanted out of my study abroad. When I look back at these goals, I can admire how much I did of what I set out to do. However, as you can see, it is not always possible to accomplish every goal. The best strategy when creating these goals is to allow room for refocusing when you are in the situation. For example, when I moved into my housing in Alicante, I realized that studying in a coffee shop closer to my apartment was more realistic than studying on campus. As such, my initial goal to “Find a study spot on campus” changed to “Find a study spot.”
At the end of the trip, having these intentions that I set before I left helped me realize the things that I accomplished in my four months abroad. What can you strive to accomplish?