Dear Future I am Ready: Britta

Education: B.A. Media Science, prospective M.A. Communication Science
Nationality: German
Age: 25
Previous international experience: Spent 2 months in London, 2 months in Australia and I traveled around the world a lot – especially to the US. I currently live in Shanghai (China)
Hobbies: traveling, fashion, tailoring, taking pictures, meeting new people
Challenge: learning mandarin and write a master thesis with so much else going on right now

Study life

I started studying two months after I finished high school. I decided to study media and communication studies with the goal to work in Marketing or PR. My university for my Bachelor’s degree was in Paderborn – a little boring town in the western part of Germany – not very far from my hometown Bielefeld. It took me 3.5 years to finish my undergrad (which is longer half a year longer than needed in Germany) - the reason for that was an internship period, which I decided to do to get a little work experience – and for me it was the best I could do. After a total of one year of internships I was sure that I needed to work for a company that I can really identify myself with. I need a connection with the company I work for. I need to stand behind the idea and feel passionate about it. After my Bachelor’s degree a dream came true: I spent two month in Australia with my boyfriend. We traveled around and felt free, there were so many moments I will never forget in my entire live. I mean how would you feel if you open your camper van at 6 a.m. and you are surrounded by dozens of kangaroos on the beach and watch the sunrise with them.

After that, I moved to Bamberg – which is the lovely town in the south of Germany where I met Taty! I started my Master’s degree there in Communication Studies. The program was not as creative as I hoped, but I met awesome new friends and got my little dog from an animal shelter. After a year of studying and enjoying the beautiful nature in Bamberg my boyfriend decided to start an MBA in August 2013.  But not an MBA in Germany – he got accepted at an American business school, which has campuses at seven locations: San Francisco, Boston, New York, Dubai, London, Sao Paolo and Shanghai.

New life in Shanghai

And here we are: In Shanghai! I decided to spend the year with him. I simply didn't want to miss the adventure of living in three different places all around the world for one year! I found an internship in Shanghai and took one semester off.  We are in Shanghai for one month now. After my semester off I will start to write my Master thesis so I can finish my studies in fall of 2014, which fits perfectly with our one year adventure.

One of my goals for the next seven months (we will stay in Shanghai until next May) is to learn Mandarin – it is a tough goal, because the language is not easy to learn. Next Sunday, I will start my private lessons J

After Shanghai we are planning to go to San Francisco and to London – so we will live on three continents in one year! What I love the most about it are the very different, highly interesting and even more amiable people we already met and we will meet during our time abroad...and I really love that you can learn new things everyday. Which leads us to the next subject...

Trying to start a new business

Sure I want to work in Marketing or PR – but why not try something on my own? A friend I met in Shanghai and I had an idea some late Saturday night – we thought: Why not start something like an authentic travel agency for young people/students in China. China is an affordable country so why are there just really expensive tours and offers - especially when you book it from Europe or the US? We have a name so far ( U Go ) and a lot of ideas – we will see how this will work out but I am so happy that I have the one year possibility right now to grow personally and to learn so many new things! 

If you want to know how everything works out follow me on my blog: just-us-and-the-world.blogspot.com 

Want to read more? Or even contribute your own story (TStrahlendberg@gmail.com)? 

http://bit.ly/FutureIamready || http://bit.ly/KristinFuture || http://bit.ly/RosairusFuture || http://bit.ly/NathalieFuture || http://bit.ly/LeighFuture || http://bit.ly/EugeniaFuture || http://bit.ly/HenniFuture || http://bit.ly/FutureLeanne || http://bit.ly/FutureUli || http://bit.ly/FutureMatt || http://bit.ly/FutureAbby || http://bit.ly/FutureAmy