Saying yes to the hard internship far from home means lonely nights. It also means coming back with stories nobody else has.

Both halves of that are true, and people usually plan for only one. There will be evenings with nothing to do and nobody to call, and that part is genuinely hard rather than a footnote. There will also be months you could not have had at home and work you cannot get locally. Saying yes means accepting a real cost for something unavailable any other way.

Plan for the lonely part before you go. One standing call a week, one thing you do on Saturdays, one person you try to befriend properly. Loneliness handled is much smaller than loneliness unplanned.