I have less than a week in Samoa. Looking back at old pictures and blog posts leaves me in awe. It can’t be possible that this time next week I will be in my own bed in Florida, let alone next month when I’ll be back at Rollins! The last few weeks were extremely stressful. Finishing up my final papers and academics was putting a damper on the group. For a couple of days, all we could talk about was coming home. We were longing for America and restaurants and even the cold. A cyclone was making its way to Samoa and the group was on edge. We couldn’t leave our rooms and we were frustrated with our last moments in Samoa. When the Cyclone passed, we decided we needed a change of attitude. When would we ever come back to Samoa? Even if we were lucky enough to return, we will never be with this group again. So, we decided to go on a tour of “The Last Times”: our last time at the ocean trench, our last time visiting our village families, our last time putting on a lavalava to get to town. Once we recognized that we wouldn’t ever have these experiences again, we were able to re-find the magic. A few of us decided to try something new and went out to Namua, a private island off the coast of our village. We stayed overnight and talked for hours about our experiences and how lucky we were to be here this semester. I am so relieved that we were all able to find the positive again. It’s hard enough having to leave such great friends and such a beautiful island, the last thing we needed was to have a negative last week together. As we continue this week, attending our last group meeting and eventually having our last movie night and our last showers on campus, I hope we remember to smile about all that we’ve done. Time is going to pass and we will be back in America soon enough, but I’m glad we aren’t wishing the time away.
