I can’t believe it’s already been six weeks. I have been abroad for six weeks… Florence has become my home and in seven weeks I have to go back to Florida. A place I used to call home. I will have to get used to driving again and walking less. I won’t be able to hop on a train and go to a new city. I won’t have aperitivo anymore and I won’t have to say “ciao” and “grazie” anymore. All of these things that I had to adjust to in the beginning, I will miss. Will I still feel like a part of my family? Will it be weird to see my parents every day? This was my first time having roommates and being an only child, having 7 people in one apartment was a bit crazy to me. But I will miss it… How does one go from sharing a room with someone where you can have a conversation from two separate beds, to sleeping in a room all alone? I know the “honeymoon” stage will hit me hard, but it’ll go by fast. I’ll love being with my parents, having a big bathroom, a dryer, and not having to go up four flights of stairs to get to my apartment but the euphoria will eventually wear off…
I do have the crazy version in my head where everything will be the same when I go home but in my realistic saner version, which won’t be the case. In this version I know it will feel like the end of a movie where the main character goes back to their childhood home, and nothing is the way they remember it. Of course, that is an exaggeration since I’m only studying abroad for three months but I can’t help but wonder what it will be like. Studying abroad has been a blessing and I’m so grateful for everything I have experienced but as I sit here planning my last and final weekend trip, I can’t help thinking what it will be like to go home, back to the states after these couple of months. It will be so sad to leave my new beautiful home but exciting to see my friends and family again.
I don’t want to feel like a foreigner in a place I’ve lived in for 19 years but it’s inevitable. I know that I won’t be able to just pick up where I left off because people change. My friends and family have their own lives, have experienced things, and things have happened since I’ve been gone. I can’t do anything about it. Being back in Florida will feel like I’m on a bridge in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean between two different cultures and languages. I just have to learn how to cross it when the time comes and hope to not get lost on the way there. I adjusted well coming to Florence, and I’m crossing my fingers I adjust well leaving Florence.