Julia Oleszynska

Nadie me quita lo bailado (No one can take away what I have danced)
When I first learned I could study abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina, I thought: “Pinch me… I must be dreaming!” A trip to Latin America? That sounded like a post-retirement fantasy — a “one day, when I have time, money, and freedom, I’ll wander wherever, however, for as long as I want” plan. And yet, somehow, that plan came true… at 20. 

In Buenos Aires, we were placed with host families. Mine turned out to be Abuela (grandma) Mercedes — who, as it happened, was the daughter of an Argentinian ambassador to Poland and later to the UAE. (Isn’t that a crazy coincidence?!)

When I told her I wanted to become a diplomat and loved horse riding, we realized we were basically the same person, just living in different eras. As excited as we were to live together, there was one tiny caveat: I didn’t speak a word of Spanish. And she — not a word of English.

A month later, I was telling my Brazilian friends about the Polish Pope and pierogi recipes — in Spanish.

Two months in, I was working at the Polish Embassy, participating in meetings entirely in Spanish. Soon after, I was taking horse-riding lessons in Mendoza’s high Andes, receiving instructions on how to tame overenergetic horses without being thrown off.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, five-year-old Julia was watching, probably thinking: “Whoa… she’s cool.” And really, what more could you wish to hear from your five-year-old self?

The world became my oyster. My friends and I traveled across Brazil, Uruguay, and nearly all of Argentina. My highlight? A month-long backpacking trip through Patagonia, which began because we couldn’t cross the Chilean border as the snow had trapped us in Argentina.

Every journey deserves a soundtrack. If NYUAD had one, it would be I Lived by OneRepublic. Because that’s exactly what I did — lived. Loved. Laughed. Fully. In a place that teaches far beyond the classroom — pushing us into the unknown, asking us to lean into discomfort. I found that real growth begins exactly where comfort ends.