Editor’s note: If you are studying abroad this summer or plan to next fall and would like to write about your experiences, feel free to contact the Daily about doing your own column.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Jacques Cousteau said, “Sometimes we are lucky enough to know that our lives have been changed, to discard the old, embrace the new and run headlong down an immutable course.”

Change. Its impact hits you like a ski in the face, which, by the way, is quite hard.

About two weeks ago, I realized how much my life and my person have changed as a result of my overseas experiences, primarily this second trip to Switzerland.

A little over a year ago I applied to come here. It came about in order to avoid having the regret of not having studied overseas a second time and not having mastered French.

It came about because a summer in France produced a profound appetite to experience other cultures. Seven months ago yesterday, I left the United States.

Now that I see how so much has changed, I almost have trouble identifying with pieces of my past. I struggle to believe I was certain places, doing certain things with certain people. In ten weeks I will return. (Gulp.) And when I go back, everything will change again.

Change, permanent and in transit, so friendly, so harsh. And no matter where you are, change is a given.

But going away for a year to experience a change is not a given.

Rather, it is an extraordinary option that is most available to you when you are a college student.

If studying outside of the U.S.A. (or, heck, if leaving the state of Iowa to do an internship or work-study) is something you’re thinking about, think harder and then DO it.

One reason to get out there is to avoid the regret of not having done so.

Regret. Everyone says it is a bad idea, and probably because life experiences have substantially provided the foundation on which this statement is built. Everyone has a couple dozen examples they can cite on the spot.

I don’t know how many times my grandma has told me about the time her friend Milly asked her to go to Switzerland. My grandma didn’t go, and instead of being able to talk about the trip, the only thing she can say about it is that about 55 years ago, her friend Milly asked her to go.

Suffice it to say, my grandma is still wondering about life on this side of the pond. I don’t know why my grandma didn’t go, and I bet my grandma doesn’t even remember exactly why she didn’t go. But I bet her own doubts were combined with the opinions of outside influences and expectations characteristic during her youth.

Lucky for me, I won’t be sitting around telling my grandchildren how my friend Milly asked me to go on an adventure. I don’t have any friends named Milly, and I actually came here. Instead, if I am still alive 55 years from now, I will be talking about this year. (Grin.)

I don’t regret embracing the opportunity to be changed by an extended stay in an unfamiliar dojo. Yes, I turned down the opportunity to graduate debt-free so I could end up in Switzerland living off a phat and easy-to-acquire loan. But I won’t ever have to pine over the phat loan I didn’t take because MY PARENTS thought it was smarter to graduate above ground instead of in the hole.

When someone else’s shoe doesn’t fit, simply don’t wear it. Wear your own.

If the fear of regret doesn’t push you to chase after the adventure that appeals to you, even better. Do it because you know that there is so much life to live. Do it because you want to gain. You won’t be disappointed.

The voyage itself is one of the most eye-opening experiences you can access via your student loan. The journey you make will also make you.

You will experience a sudden change of environment and your perspective and your boat will be rocked. You will find that your eyes open wider, and your thoughts have more directions in which they can go. You will get to live the highs and lows of this life inside another culture. Your adventure will allow you to see the United States from a foreign perspective, making your homeland a greater and worse place altogether.

You will learn that objectivity doesn’t really exist. You will become flexible, bending in ways you’ve never bent before.

It is so marvelous and miraculous and challenging and uncertain and frightening and fun.

Don’t have any regrets. Don’t let others put obstacles in your course when they don’t belong there. Be lucky enough to have that ski hit you in the face so you can discard the old, embrace the new and run headlong down your course.

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Amanda Fier is a senior in journalism and French from Davenport living it up in Lausanne.