Today marks two weeks since I returned to the United States from my 3-month long adventure abroad. I’ve held off on writing this final blog post until now for a couple reasons: one being that I believe I needed a little bit of time to just relax and be at home with my family and the other reason being that I wanted to give myself some time to reflect on and process everything I had experienced throughout my summer. Before I get into that, however, I do feel as though I should at least give a brief synopsis of my trip to Florence, so as to do that city justice.
I have to say, Florence was my absolute favorite city that I visited in Italy. I had heard a lot about it from friends who had already been, and it most definitely lived up to all my expectations. There’s a charm to the city that is present in its beautiful Renaissance influenced art and architecture and that made it such a fun place to visit. It also seemed to be the perfect size: big enough to have tons of restaurants, shops, and things to do, but also small enough to be walkable and unintimidating. The highlights of my Florence trip included visiting the Uffizi Art Gallery and taking a bus a little outside the city to tour a couple vineyards in the Tuscany region and experience a wine tasting. The majority of students from my study abroad program also traveled to Florence that weekend and we got to experience much of the city together. It was the perfect way to spend our last weekend in Italy.
I mentioned earlier that I wanted to give myself time to reflect on and process everything from the past 3 months. I’ve come to realize, however, it’s near impossible for me to fully process everything. How do you wrap your mind around having just experienced something you know you will reflect on and talk about for the rest of your life? I’d been dreaming of studying abroad in college ever since I returned from my high school’s French exchange trip in 2017. I also wasn’t sure if it would ever end up happening because of Covid. Now that it’s over and I got to live out what was quite literally the summer of my dreams, I don’t know where to begin processing it all. I’ve been asked a few times now, “so how was it?”, as if there is a simple answer to that question. I have also noticed that people who haven’t had similar international experiences find it really difficult to relate and often quickly lose interest when I attempt to describe all that I have experienced. In a way, it’s a bit alienating feeling like very few people actually understand what you’ve experienced. What I always go back to, though, when I’m feeling like this is that I’m so incredibly fortunate to have had these experiences. It’ll take time to understand all the ways this summer has impacted me but what I do know now is that I’ve grown so much. After navigating 3 months abroad, visiting six different countries (if you’re counting the Vatican City), taking 3 classes, and working an internship, I’m more confident, independent, culturally aware, and adaptable than I was before. In just rereading my old blog posts, I can see the growth in myself as time goes on. That personal growth is worth all the reverse culture shock that I’ve experienced since returning.
Now it’s really back to reality, as I soon head down to Gainesville to start my senior year at UF. I have no doubt that I will fully readjust back to life as an American college student and I’m very excited for what this last year at UF will bring. I also have no doubt that I will return to Europe in some way or another. As my Dad so cheese-ily said to me recently, “you left a piece of your heart there, and that’s how I know you’ll be back”.
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