Sasha Fegan
Queenstown, New Zealand
I spent my first four weeks in New Zealand cooped up in the city of Dunedin trying to figure out where the natural beauty that all of my guide books promised was hiding. I left the city for Queenstown in the afternoon and arrived there in the middle of the night. After spending the night exploring the tourist mecca of a town, I found myself feeling like I had made a mistake in coming to New Zealand because it felt very superficial and over hyped. After spending the night bunkered down in a poorly insulated, miniscule room, enjoying myself with three of my flat mates nonetheless, I realized that the people I had met in my first month had made studying abroad worthwhile. The next morning, we woke up to a gorgeous lake view and made it up to the mountain where we saw this scene. This picture reminds me of coming to terms with expectations I had, coming to appreciate my experiences even thought they differed from my expectations, and eventually being rewarded with the view in this picture.