It\u2019s been about a week now since I\u2019ve flown home to the States and I\u2019m back in my room, staring at the all too familiar pink striped carpet and laying in the same bed I was laying in right before I left. I would say that everything is the same, but something has changed; and that something is me.<\/p>\n
It is such a clich\u00e9 to say that going abroad changed me, but don\u2019t clich\u00e9s exist because they are relatable and real? To elaborate though, I wouldn\u2019t say it was going abroad itself that changed me. It was the experiences I went through and the people I met. I pushed myself to do and experience things out of my comfort zone because I believe that is where the most personal growth can occur; and I can definitely say I am more independent and comfortable with myself because of this experience.<\/p>\n
When I look back at the blog post I wrote before I left, I wrote a lot about how the trip would be inherently lonely. While there were moments I was by myself, I never truly felt alone because the connections I made with the people there were beyond anything I could have ever anticipated. I had thought that the friends I would make wouldn\u2019t get to know me to my core, but I think they might know me better than most of my friends that I\u2019ve known for years! There\u2019s something about all being vulnerable in a new place with new surroundings that forces you to open up to each other at an extremely rapid pace. As we traveled around Europe and experienced new cultures, we only had each other to rely on. That helps form bonds that can last a lifetime.<\/p>\n
Adjusting back to the States is more difficult than I thought. I just came from London, a place known as a \u2018global city\u2019 due to its mixture of every culture in one place. Now, I\u2019m back in my small town where everyone is kind of the same. It\u2019s hard to wrap my head around the fact that the life I lived in London is no longer one I can return to. It almost feels like some bizarre dream where people asked me \u2018you all right?\u2019 instead of \u2018what\u2019s up\u2019 and were dead silent on the tube as I commuted an hour to work every day. Did that really happen? Since no one in my life in Florida understands, how could it have been real?<\/p>\n
But it was real and I keep reminding myself that. I talk to my study abroad friends every day. I relive my favorite memories from photos in my phone when I miss it too much. I still keep my Tube card in my phone case just because I like looking at it! Even though everything here in Florida has stayed the same, the lessons I learned will always be with me no matter where I go next in life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s been about a week now since I\u2019ve flown home to the States and I\u2019m back in my room, staring at the all too familiar pink striped carpet and laying in the same bed I was laying in right before I left. I would say that everything is the same, but something has changed; and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":234,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-capa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/234"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10957"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13961,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10957\/revisions\/13961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}