The Last Tale

Well, I can't believe I am writing my last blog from Europe. Seems like just yesterday I was writing about my arrival. So much happens in a year.

Most of the others have gone already, I'm left cleaning and packing and sorting and tossing. This is my last day in the city, and I am planning to spend my afternoon in the center, walking around my favorite streets and piazzas and taking it in for the last time. Sounds so sad to say it like that.

The year ended with a bang, though. We took a trip to Sicily for a week with the school after finals were over. 16 hour bus trip, but it was worth it when we arrived to an island filled with sunshine, beautiful beaches, and sparkling emerald waters. It was such an amazing trip. We went to several of the little towns that line the coast, adorable little beach towns built up on cliffs overlooking the sea. We went up to Mt. Etna and climbed around on craters. Another day we took a ferry to the volcanic island of Vulcano, where we lounged around on the beach and went into the sulfur mud baths, which was quite an interesting experience. We ate delicious food and stayed in a hotel that was on a beautiful pebbly beach, with perfect water. It was definitely a trip I will remember forever, being in such a beautiful place with all of us together for the last time.

The ends of experiences are always a little difficult. I am so happy to be going home, to be going back to my real life there, but at the same time it seems surreal that things will not continue to be like they have been here. I feel like I have been here for so long, yet at the same time, it seems to have passed in the blink of an eye.
I remember at least three years ago, making plans in my mind to spend a year studying abroad, and the time leading up to when I came, I spent reading guidebooks and travel memoirs, and daydreaming about what it would be like. I think that it has exceeded my expectations. I have learned so much, seen so many things, come to appreciate a new culture and new things that I never did before, like art and architecture and food and history. I have learned a new language and can now communicate in a way I never could before. I have made new friends who have become important and will be part of my life forever. I have become more self-sufficient, traveled on my own and done things I didn't think I would ever do on my own. When I think hard about it, I feel like I have accomplished the goals I set out for myself when I came. I can't wait to get home and see how the things that I have learned here about life and myself will affect my life at home. I know that I am not the same person who came here 10 months ago, and for this I am grateful, because I believe that it is important to always have change and growth in life, even if it is hard sometimes.

So thank you, Italy, for this year and this opportunity, and this newfound happiness that I now have. I will always remember this year as one of the best of my life, and I will always be grateful for it.