David Rauch was a Northern Star employee studying abroad. “An American In Paris” chronicled his studies and adventures in France.

Leaving DeKalb was essential. Leaving the Midwest became an obsession.

I only needed a taste of another life, to live the imaginary ideal for a semester. Then I could be happy, finish school and get on with my life — happy to know I tried every trick I could.

It is very convenient that study abroad programs exist. They come at the right time — when you have the energy still to be displaced.

The excitement can still be roused in the blood just to step into a Parisian cafe, take the red-eye train after not sleeping all night and riding the buses in London until sunrise.

Any earlier and I would be unable to remain in control. As it is, I barely made my way around safely. Any later and I would not have the elasticity to leave my way of life, job and responsibilities for four months and simply experience life. To let it wash over me.

It will never come around again so easy — the chance to leave, to have the government help pay for it, to sample, to have the opportunity to completely redefine myself.

There is nothing I can tell you about studying abroad that you do not already know.

First, you have to need to get out of the country. Then you go to the study abroad office, pick a program from the wall of catalogues for any country that interests you. It is open to anyone, even without language skills, money or a clue what you want to do with your life.

Getting out helps. The air of a foreign country changes your DNA, your brain functions, your eyesight and your life story, not to mention your scope and job marketability.

Studying abroad is not the army, but it occasionally pushes you to the mental edge. If you take your immersion into the new culture seriously, your nerves are stretched to their very end.

Almost every question plaguing the modern world about identity, belonging, displacement, alienation, intercultural relations and exchange will become very real and personal. It acts as a forceful humanist education.

You are not alone, either. Studying abroad used to be only for the elite. Now anyone can do it — anyone who needs to get out.

Now it is your turn.