Victory

Two final exams down, three more to go. I think I did alright...and those two may have been the most difficult. Wednesday at noon, I will be completely finished.

This week has been all about reflecting on the past year. I remember sometime late this summer, as my departure was getting closer and closer, I woke up one morning in a cold sweat after having a bad dream. In this dream, I was abroad, about to go on a weekend trip somewhere in Europe. I had a car and I started driving, but I was hopeless. I had no idea where to go, what to do, who to ask. I was completely lost. After the dream, I realized that it was true: I had no idea how to travel. I'd never even left the Northwest without my parents.

Today, I could go anywhere I wanted in the world with little difficulty. Through this program, we turned the world into our playground. If I wanted to go to the coast, I did it. If I wanted to go to Amsterdam for the weekend, I did. Anywhere, anytime. Why not?

Realistically, it's probably never going to be like this again. I'll be very, very, very lucky if I can ever afford (timewise and moneywise) to just travel around like that again. This sounds kind of sad, but the things I came away with from this year greatly outway the losses and the voids I will feel in the near future.

A couple weeks ago, I was pretty concerned about whether or not I had made the most out of the year. Was our group as a whole close enough? Had we made the most out of our environment, the people we were with, and the things we could do? It all came together for me early Thursday morning as I sat in the airport at Pisa waiting for the 6:30 a.m. flight to Sicily. Conor, Matt, and John were sleeping, and the terminal was pretty quiet. It hit me right then and there: I had done what I had needed to do here. It was pure satisfaction. My goals were accomplished. I traveled around much of Europe, visiting and loving some of the most interesting cities in the world. I had my fair share of adventures along the way. I made new friends for life and solidified the bonds with the friends I already had. I conquered the language barrier. I became cultured. I grew.

I'm going to miss all of this. I'm going to miss this Eutopia where the biggest problems deal with making travel plans and petty social issues like who's hooking up with who and what bar everyone's going to tonight. I'm going to miss sneaking peaks at the Duomo on my way to school every morning. But I hope that 30 years from now, I can simply close my eyes and be right back there again, living life the way it should be lived, if only for a brief moment.