It is amazing how quickly this three-month semester is coming to a close. That famous saying of “time flies when you’re having fun” was completely evident with my study abroad experience because three months were gone in a blink of an eye. But I did so much, met so many great people, and made so many memories. But all in all, I of course cannot wait to be back home. Being away for three months isn’t necessarily something new for a college student because at Rollins we’re in school and away from home from August until December. The major difference in this instance though is that there is a break in the semester when students get to go home for about a week. So, it isn’t straight four months of not seeing any family members or hometown friends. The other difference of this semester to previous ones is you know just that mere fact that I’m an entire ocean away in an entirely different country as oppose to being only about 400 miles away from home. I expected being away from my family and my friends to be hard but it was surprisingly tougher than I thought. I have two younger sisters, my baby sister is 9 about to be 10, and then my little sister is 18 years old. While I was experiencing so much here in Europe it still felt like I was missing out on so much in these short few months back home, for starters it is my little sister’s first year of college at the University of Florida in Gainesville. There were so many times when we were facetiming and she was stressing over due dates for papers coming up or even if she was stressing over silly boy problems, I wished I was able to drive up for a weekend just to see her and help her in any way I could by either talking through paper ideas with her or even intimidating a dumb boy. My baby sister on the other hand is still in the process of growing up, going through elementary school, and playing new sports. There are so many elementary school concerts of hers, she plays the violin, that I missed out on so far this year. Also breaks at Rollins not only let me see my sisters and my parents but I also get to spend time with my few high school friends I’m still close to. Not being able to see them has proven hard but not nearly as hard as the family missing. On top of all this, I’m missing out on the Holidays back home. I mean yeah, I’ll be back home for Christmas but I miss out on most of the season, including Halloween and Thanksgiving. So yes, I am looking forward to the end of this chapter in my life while also being sad that it is already over and done with. It’s a bittersweet thing.
