2. Do Time Management

Traveling for more than six months can seem like an enormous amount of time, but when you’re on the road, it actually can go by really fast. With that, there are two common things that can happen over the course of your journey. You may start to feel homesick, which is common and completely normal. People often start to miss certain things, like familiar foods, or long for home and the familiar.

You can avoid this by making sure you always have things to look forward to, like dinner with new friends or a trip outside your host community. Time will fly by so make sure you keep a positive perspective and realize that during the most difficult parts of your sabbatical are when you’ll probably learn the most.

3. Document the Journey

Use your time abroad to share what you are learning and document the journey for others back home via social media. This will not only help you maintain your connections back home, but it will also give you the opportunity to reflect on and contextualize your experiences.

You don’t have to plaster your journey on every single social media platform, but consider what works best for you. Depending on where you’re traveling and how much free time you’ll have, think about whether writing a blog, using Twitter, or sharing photos via Instagram would be valuable for your journey. If you do it well and keep up with it, it may even be something you could consider monetizing or using for your portfolio later on.