What is a good opportunity?

To know what is a good opportunity, you need to know your limits first.

When I was a junior in university, I had decided to study abroad to China for the first semester of my senior’s. I wanted to try lots of food, meet people, and travel across the whole country. But in a instant, COVID outbreaked again, the city control was applied; I also got an internship which conflicted with my plan. Knowing both the internship was more important and traveling in China was likely impossible, I withdrew from the exchange program and started thinking about applying to another program for my last semester.

“Not going to China, where are you heading to?” One of my roommates asked. He’s going to Singapore.
“I’m not really sure. I have planned to have my Master’s in the U.S., so probably not there. Europe is nice, but there are a lot of countries to choose from. I won’t go to France and Germany, since learning a new language can be exhausting. UK either, the university is far from the major cities and I will travel a lot…”

Then Sweden came into my mind. One of my cousins studied there for one year and she said it was nice. Most of the people in Sweden speaks English well – great. IKEA was from Sweden? Cool. I have never seen snow, and Sweden had tons of snow! Gothenburg has an airport where I can easily fly to other countries across Europe. The university – Chalmers – has good reputation. It seemed like a perfect fit for me.

And it was! The half year in Sweden was the most memorable period in my life. I have visited several major cities across Europe, proved the stereotypes I had about them were mostly true, yet founded how different each country was, while in our daily language we often think of Europe as a whole. I also met a group of people from Taiwan, who were attracted to Sweden for its remoteness, beauty, and mystery, and we had lots of fun together.

The decision-making process seems very intuitive at the time, but when I reflect on it now, I realize that I made the decision easily because I found it could be once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Chances are low for me to travel to Sweden and over Europe for half a year at a young age as a student, so I went all for it without much thinking, and the reward has been immense and long-lasting. I completed many items on my travel bucket list, became more open-minded, and gained the courage to face future challenges.

Knowing my limits helps me identify good opportunies, and make decisions accordingly.