My final adventures took place in England over Christmas with my family. I returned to the lovely United States on January 1 and have started the new year back home!
People have asked me if I'm happy to be home. They have asked if I miss Europe and the freedom I had to travel. To answer the first question: Yes, I am very happy to be home. I had a wonderful experience abroad, but home is home. As cliche and dumb as that statement is, for me, the word home really does come with the connotations of family and love and comfort. I don't miss being abroad right now-give me a few weekends in Georgia and South Carolina, and then Madrid, Paris, Amsterdam, London, Krakow, Grindelwald, Osnabruck, Strasbourg, Bordeaux, Budapest, Rome, Cinque Terre, Chianti, Florence, and even Brussels might sound more opportunistic and exciting.
Social media and blogs are very deceiving though, and I too am at fault for being deceptive. I didn't post pictures of me struggling to find my place in the internship. I didn't post pictures of those trains we missed and had to sit on the curb for hours. I left out the stories of awful classes at the local college. My pictures showed me loving life with my friends, when in fact, I missed my family and wanted them to experience everything with me too. So no, my semester was not perfect. I'll tell the good stories, but you should also know that it was hard sometimes.
I'll tell you too, that I'm thankful for all of it, every detail of the trip.
Maybe I will never work in International Relations with a Socialist Party in Germany, but I never would have understood the European Union and my place in it as an American without this experience. I never would have even wanted to understand.
Maybe my classes weren't the best, but I learned more about myself through my travels than I ever could have learned in the classroom. I am also so much more thankful for Furman, its academics, and the professors who care-I'm excited to return.
I got to travel the world with my friends, but no matter which incredible place we traveled to, it was the people who helped shape the trip and the experience that we had. We had to work on friendship sometimes, but I am thankful for the good times we shared together. I am also now more thankful for my family and our opportunity to grow closer while so far apart. My brother was still able to tell when I was having a bad day and needed someone to talk to (simply because my texts were too long, and he knew there was a rant coming that needed to be dealt with by phone). My sister still sent me weird videos to watch and selfies, of course. My parents still answered all of my questions and calmed my worries from across the world. I wish they were all there to see the places that I traveled, but I needed to experience them independently for myself. So, for that independence, I am thankful too.
I'll have stories from these experiences for forever, and that's pretty exciting. Now, I want to live my life here with a greater appreciation for the places that I live. Why is Greenville not just as exciting as Madrid? Someone else probably thinks it is. So, here's to more adventures at home and more appreciation-mostly appreciation for free tap water, English speakers, and the ability to drive a car to the grocery store.
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| Merry Christmas- Love, the Bodas |
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| Kew Garden Statues |
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| This picture is for your viewing pleasure because I don't want to deceive you into thinking I ate like a Queen and led a normal life all semester. |
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