Right now, I'm sitting in my bedroom at school, procrastinating packing by writing this post. Last night, it occurred to me that the next time I sleep in this bedroom I will be getting ready to start my senior year of college. The act of packing up a bedroom always brings with it a bout of nostalgia. I was so excited to design this bedroom, with the white, green, and rose-gold coloring, the Gamma Phi Beta decorations on the walls, the wolf prints, and framed posters. The last time I had my own bedroom was before Celia. And though I know I'll be back in four months, it's still a very bitter-sweet feeling.
It feels like three months ago, not three years ago, that I was moving into my freshman dorm in Mack Hall on my eighteenth birthday. Those three years of college have made me grow so much as a person, this last semester in particular. I've dealt with a lot of big events this semester, both good and bad, that have sent me even further from the person I was in August of 2016.
While reflecting on how much I've changed as a person this semester, I wondered how much this study experience will change me in the next two months. As I mentioned in my first post, I've never been out of the United States. The furthest from home I've ever been is the western US -- and I didn't even go all the way to the cost. In sixteen days I'll be flying first across the US border to Toronto, Canada, and then across the Atlantic Ocean to Paris, France. I'm eager to see how much this experience causes me to grow, as it broadens my worldview and I see things I've only dreamt of.
I look forward to meeting the person that will move back into this bedroom in August of 2019, right before her twenty-first birthday. I look forward to hearing about the journeys and adventures she had in France, the people she met, the trials she underwent, and discovering how they continued that growth in her that began so notably in 2016.
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