Stepping off the plane and entering into the arrivals hall of the Milan Airport made it official. Standing there with my suitcase, camera bag, and Italian announcements echoing overhead, everything became very real. I was over five thousand miles from College Station, and my study abroad semester had begun.
I arrived with more than my belongings. I brought with me the six core values taught to every Aggie at Texas A&M University: excellence, integrity, leadership, loyalty, respect, and selfless service. What I did not yet know was that each of those values would be tested, stretched, and deepened in ways I never could have expected before boarding that flight.
When I first arrived in Milan, Italy, I knew I was stepping into something new. I expected study abroad to stretch me academically, socially, and personally, but I did not realize how quickly that growth would begin. Within my first two weeks at Bocconi University, I was already learning how to live in a new country, speak a new language, study business through a global lens, and adjust to a way of life that is very different from what I know in Texas.
One of the most meaningful moments from my first days at Bocconi happened in my Italian language course. After class, I gave my professor my business card for my destination wedding photography business, Sarah Seymour Photography, because we had been talking about our careers in class. She looked at it, smiled, and spontaneously told me that the next week I would present about my business in Italian using past, present, and future tense to explain how I started it, what I am doing now, and what I hope to do in the future with my business, Sarah Seymour Photography. Two weeks earlier, I had arrived in Italy knowing almost no Italian. Before I knew it, I was standing in front of my class of thirty exchange students from around the world, speaking in a language I had only just begun to learn. It was a challenge, but it was also one of the first moments that reminded me why I had chosen to study abroad. I was also met with kindness, patience, and encouragement from the students around me. Growth rarely feels natural at first. I already knew that stepping into the unfamiliar is part of growing, but my first days at Bocconi University made that truth feel more real than ever.
Bocconi has impressed me deeply. It is a school of excellence, and I see many of the same values that Texas A&M University and Mays Business School have taught me. Texas A&M’s core values of excellence, integrity, leadership, loyalty, respect, and selfless service are not just words I carry with me in College Station. They have shaped how I show up here, too. At Bocconi, I see excellence in the pace and rigor of the classroom. I see leadership in the way students are expected to think critically and speak with confidence. I witness respect in the international classroom environment, where students from many countries bring different ideas, cultures, and perspectives.
Bocconi’s classroom environment is deeply global. In my classes, I have met students from countries such as South Korea, Brazil, Germany, France, China, and India. Every discussion brings together different cultures, markets, habits, and ways of thinking, which has already expanded the way I understand business.
At Mays Business School, I have been taught to think about leadership, character, and the real impact business can have on communities. At Bocconi, I am seeing those ideas through a European and international lens. The connection between the two schools has been one of the most encouraging parts of my first weeks abroad. Mays prepared me to enter this environment with curiosity, discipline, and a willingness to contribute. Bocconi is now pushing me to apply those qualities in a setting where the people, language, culture, and business context are different from what I know.
Mays taught me that business is not just about success, strategy, or performance. It is about character. It is about how we lead, how we serve, and how our decisions affect people beyond ourselves. Being here has reminded me that the Aggie values are not limited to Texas A&M. They are values as a lifelong Aggie, I carry into any room, any country, and any conversation. That has been one of the most powerful parts of studying abroad so far.
The academic style has also been more applied than I expected. In many of my courses, we are not only reading about business strategy, marketing, and customer experience. We are meeting with store directors from brands such as Levi Strauss & Co. and sharing with them real recommendations that could improve their marketing and customer experience. It is exciting to study business in a place where fashion, luxury, design, and global commerce are part of the city’s everyday rhythm.
Milan itself has been a big adjustment. In the United States, I am used to large breakfasts, long coffee shop study sessions, and a faster sense of convenience. In Italy, coffee is often a daily ritual expected to be enjoyed at the cafe. Breakfast is usually small and sweet. Grocery stores are much smaller than HEB in College Station, and everyday routines flow a lot slower. At first, these small changes felt unfamiliar compared to what I was used to. But I am learning that different does not mean wrong. It simply means there is room to grow, adjust, and approach life from a new perspective.
That has become one of my biggest lessons so far. To see the good, I have to look for the good. It is easy to focus on what feels different when life does not look like what I am used to. But the more time I spend in Milan, the more I realize that the unfamiliar parts are often the parts teaching me the most. A small breakfast, a slower walk, a coffee enjoyed without rushing, a street filled with a language I am still learning, these moments have put this city in the most beautiful light for me. Italy is teaching me that new perspective often comes when I allow myself to be fully present and notice the beauty in ordinary moments.
Studying abroad in Milan has already taught me to be more flexible, more present, and excited to embrace what is ahead. It has reminded me how much I love being immersed in new cultures and how much there is to learn when I allow myself to be outside of my comfort zone.
I am learning to slow down in a way that my American rhythm does not naturally allow. I am learning to be present for the small rituals- the morning coffee, the walk to campus through streets older than the country I was born in, the conversations over lunch that stretch longer than they would back home because no one seems to be in a hurry to end them. The Italians have a phrase for this quality of life: la dolce vita, meaning the sweet life.
Two weeks in, I am beginning to understand that studying abroad is not just about adapting to a new place. It is about allowing that place to change the way I see the world. Bocconi has already stretched my thinking, Milan has taught me to slow down and pay attention, and Texas A&M has given me a foundation I can carry with me wherever I go.
I truly cannot wait to see what the rest of this semester holds.
Gig ’em from Milan!
Sarah Seymour
Class of 2027 Marketing Student | Mays Business School, Texas A&M University
Bocconi University | Milan, Italy | March 2026
