"Shut Up and Go" to France! | Campus France USA

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"I’d say that studying abroad was single-handedly the most important thing I ever did in my life"

1) Why did you decide to study in France?

For me it was the decision between London and Paris, and the deciding factor was predicting who else would be on my trip. London feels more comfortable and familiar to Western culture - and there’s nothing wrong with that - but I really did want to become fluent in French and live out my high school dream of living in Paris. I say “high school dream” because up until that point, I had listened to everyone around me and taken Spanish instead. I also knew that my study abroad experience wasn’t going to be just me going to a country - it was going to be an experience with those who were also in my program.

It excited me to know I was going to be just as unfamiliar with the culture as everyone else. It was like we were all embarking on an unknown adventure together. Of course, some people couldn’t handle it and they dropped out, but 90% of us stuck it out, traveled together, and a few of us are living in Paris today. To this day, when I pass a kebab stand, an Erasmus party, or Monoprix taboulé, I message my friends from my study abroad program.

2) How has your experience in France contributed to your personal and professional goals?

Studying abroad was the first time I was truly alone - and that is so powerful when you’re in your “formative years” (18 - 30). I could finally make decisions based on what I wanted to do, and not what my guidance counselor, friends, or family suggested. It felt like a fresh start - like my life was finally starting.

And that’s when it did start. Jo, my best friend and now business partner, and I started filming our adventures backpacking around Europe on weekends when we didn’t have to be at our universities in Paris. Our friends and family would ask how we were traveling so much for two kids who were so broke, and we decided to start hitting them back with a Youtube link. Over the years, we started taking it more and more seriously and it has now been four years that we are full-time YouTubers and entrepreneurs via our travel and lifestyle company Shut Up and Go.

What seemed like just a fun idea while we were studying abroad in 2012 has now evolved into something so much bigger, and it is now literally the reason I received a talent visa to currently be able to live in Paris. I guess you never really know when a major life moment is happening right before your eyes.

3) Can you tell us a little anecdote or memory of your study abroad in France?

Wow - I feel like 75% of my references these days come from my study abroad days. It was truly the first time I was on my own. It’s one thing to be on your own in your home country, where the day-to-day is still familiar, and it’s a whole ‘nother thing to be in a foreign country where even your most basic actions and behaviors are questioned. I remember severly missing peanut butter (the French thought it was gross). I remember plugging an American Keurig into my chambre de bonne electrical outlet and it shutting down my entire building’s electricity. (désolé). I remember meeting my ex-boyfriend of six years at an Erasmus party at Mixclub on a Thursday night. Studying abroad, or really just being abroad, I truly felt like I was alive.

4) In one sentence, for you, what was unique about your experience of studying in France?

The French have a worldwide reputation of being uniquely French - that can mean so many things, but for me, it’s a feeling, and you’ll only fully understand the feeling till you feel the feeling. Vague, but it’ll hit you one day when you’re sitting at a terrace listening to the smooth French around you (and inhaling the secondhand smoke) - maybe they go hand-in-hand? Daily life here feels more poetic, more cinematic - and I think it has to do with the general importance placed on the fine arts, architecture, and philosophy. I feel somehow more awake in each moment, and instead of my life feeling like it’s going by so quickly, I feel good in each little moment walking around the little maze-like cobblestone streets.

I think in the States, there is this general idea that being busy means you’re doing something right - that you’re important and thus, successful. I feel like the French, and Europeans in general, are less concerned with appearing busy and “in demand.” They’re just trying to enjoy their lives - and frankly, I’m down with that. But I must say, I wasn’t always this way. I used to be a résumé stacker and the President of every club in my high school. It wasn’t until I studied abroad in Paris that my entire thought process on life itself started changing. To conclude, I’d say that studying abroad was single-handedly the most important thing I ever did in my life. Oh and sorry, that was not one sentence. Hehe.