"these are the luxury years, when you can keep sensitive and searching for what your inner self really is trying to tell you. Pause and smell the roses. But don't become passive and let the years roll on and over you. A few false starts aren't necessarily a disaster" – my grandma
Life is all about the experiences. The good, the bad, the new, the old. Experience shapes who you are and helps you learn and grow as a person. Whether it’s travelling somewhere new or meeting someone who changes your life, every experience has an influence on you – which is why it’s important to have as many of them as possible. Of all the valuable lessons I learned during this study abroad experience, this was the most significant. I learned that I need to travel as much as I can, never to be afraid of change, and to live truly, fully in the moment. I want to keep learning, growing, and experiencing.
This side of me comes from my grandma, who travelled all over the world and overcame every obstacle she was faced with. She was a strong, independent woman and every day I aspire to be more like her. In the past 4 months, I have noticed the part of her in me has become bigger and bigger, and with each new experience I felt closer to her. I have left Australia as a stronger, more independent woman. I learned not to worry about the little things, to put the past behind me, and focus on living, truly feeling alive in the present. As the Aussies say, “no worries mate” or “she’ll be right mate” (aka it will be alright). I intend to bring what I learned back home and not let myself fall back into the stressed-out, sleep-deprived zombie state I was. These past 4 months have been the best, happiest days of my life. I achieved everything I desired and so much more than that. For record keeping purposes, I would like to list all the places I’ve been and activities/some of the experiences I’ve had:
Places (In chronological order)
- St. Kilda/Sorrento
- Melbourne
- Gold Coast
- Straddie (North Stradbroke Island)
- Byron Bay
- Whitsunday Islands
- Mt. Warning/Mt. Tambourine
- Tassie (Tasmania)
- Sydney
- Outback
- New Zealand
- Brisbane
- Adelaide
Experiences/activities
- Snorkeling
- Sea kayaking
- Sandboarding
- Surfing
- Sailing
- Jumping 10,000 feet out of a plane
- Cable hang gliding
- Hiking
- Camping
- Drum lesson
- Beach volleyball
- AFL (Australian Football League) game
- Winery tour/tasting
- Emu dances
- Glow worm caves
- Tim tam slam/Kangaroo meat
- Holding a koala and petting a kangaroo
- Holding a snake and petting a crocodile
- Glacier hike
- Scenic boat tour
- Roadtrips
- Zorbing
And the craziest, most unexpected, most wonderful and blissfully happy experience was someone I met. As cheesy as this may sound, I met an Australian boy within 10 days of arriving in Australia and we’ve been dating ever since. And we will continue to date, despite me going back to America, because something so good is not worth losing. We have to give it a shot, at least. Not that it will easy – getting back on that plane was the hardest thing I’ve had to do since getting on it to come here. But when you feel something is right and healthy and makes you happy it’s worth every single moment. And it has been. I regret nothing, even if it hurts me later. I know this may sound like a fairy tale sort of story – coming to Australia, meeting a boy, changing my departure date so I could extend my stay, having Christmas with his family and all the while feeling like I was a part of it. It’s scary actually, how fast you can abandon an old life for a new one and feel like you really belong there. I easily could have taken that path. I could have not gotten on this plane. I thought about it and I would have, had it not been for my ties to school, my great, wonderful friends and the loving, supportive family that I missed. It’s for them that I’m coming home.
Love,
Emily
