Dear Carol,

I’m thinking about doing a junior year abroad, and my friend said you did it! Did you?

– Junior Year Abroad

Dear Junior Year Abroad,

Moi? Oui! I applied to a program called School Year Abroad (sya.org), got in and spent my senior year of high school living with a French family. My daughters did the same program, but as high school juniors in Spain. Life-changing! There are other programs, too—just search Google. And if you don’t take this step in high school, I hope you will in college. Living abroad makes you feel more at home in the world (and it’s easier to do as a student than as an adult with bills to pay). Bon voyage! Or maybe ¡buen viaje!

Carol Weston is the author of 16 books. The latest is Speed of Life, about a teen girl who writes to an advice columnist. Check out carolweston.com for more.

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