I moved from my home in the UK to the US for 4 months. Here's how traveling alone at a young age changed my life for the better.

• I moved from the UK to the US for a semester abroad in 2016.
• At 20 years old, this was my first experience living away from home.

I swallowed back tears as I boarded the plane to Philadelphia.

The year was 2016, and I was about to embark on a four-month exchange semester at Millersville University of Pennsylvania. I was 20 years old at the time, and it marked my first time flying alone, and my first time living away from home.

I can understand that four months may seem fleeting to those who are used to being away from their families — but I wasn't. I was born and raised in Glasgow, Scotland's largest city, and went to university there too. I stayed at my parents' home to save money, and whenever I did travel it was on family vacations.

Moving to a foreign country alone was the scariest thing I had ever done. I'd recommend it to anyone who is able to, even those who consider themselves a "homebody" like I did.

It made me a braver person and influenced the decisions I made later in life

If you had asked me what I was afraid of when boarding that plane, I wouldn't have been able to give you a rational answer. What if the university was unsafe? What if I didn't get along with my roommates? What if I didn't like the US and wanted to return home?

I remember calling my mom constantly in those first few weeks to update her or to ask for advice when I came across something that worried or challenged me.

There were plenty of things that surprised me about Millersville and American college culture in general. Millersville was a dry campus (something we don't have in the UK), the workload was more intense than I was used to, and I was shocked to see emergency phones connected to the local police dotted around campus.

But eventually, I adjusted to my surroundings. Being at Millersville was eye-opening, and I got to celebrate traditions and holidays that we don't have in the UK, including homecoming, Thanksgiving, and American football games. I made friends with other international students, and we taught each other about our respective cultures and languages.

By the time the four months were over, I didn't recognize myself anymore. I was more confident than ever, and felt inspired to continue trying new life experiences that would bring me out of my comfort zone.

So, three years later, when I was offered a reporting job at Insider's London office, I didn't think twice about accepting it. At the time, I didn't know anyone in the UK's capital city, which I had only visited a handful of times — certainly not enough to know it well.

But I found myself feeling excited rather than fearful — the opposite of how I felt three years before.

My time in the US sparked my love for travel

I was able to explore a handful of places during my study abroad, including New York City, Washington D.C., Harrisburg, and New Jersey. I kept a travel blog to document each trip, which I passed around to family and friends back home.

My study abroad inspired me to make traveling a priority. In the years following, I visited friends who live overseas, and I also explored neighborhoods in my city that I had never been to before. The latter was something I started doing more so during the pandemic, when I learned that you don't have to go far or to spend a lot of money in order to travel.

A couple of years into my role at Insider, I was given the opportunity to do some travel writing. In October, I embarked on my first ever solo cruise, Cunard's five-night western Europe voyage. It was one of the first cruises to leave the UK since the pandemic began.

I didn't have a plus one on my trip, but I soon made friends with the other passengers.

I found myself thinking that if I hadn't gone to the US all those years ago, I may have never had the confidence to navigate the other experiences that have defined my life, including moving to London and embarking on my first solo cruise.

Traveling alone — and at a young age — can be a scary experience if you haven't done it before. But it's often the scary experiences that teach us the most about ourselves and what we are capable of.