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Sometimes it hits me

"You get a strange feeling when you're about to leave a place, like you'll not only miss the people you love but you'll also miss the person you are now at this time and place because you'll never be this way again"
I'm not quite sure where I stumbled upon this quote, but it's something I've kept in the back of my mind for the last month or so. It's something that struck me, something that glued itself to me with all the events unfolding in my life. In less than a month, I'll leave the only home I've ever known and distance myself from the ones I love the most (except for you Heidz, you'll be stuck with me), I'll be away from family and friends, my most prized possessions, for the next five months, and forced to experience life in an entirely new culture surrounded by unfamiliar faces and places.

Studying abroad is something that excites me and terrifies me at the same time. It's something I've dreamed of doing my entire life, but the closer it gets the more anxious I get thinking of everyone and everything I'll be leaving at home. In all honesty, I call my mom to and from class multiple times a day, just to hear her voice and tell her what i ate for lunch. It's the stupid uneventful phone calls, the drunken mistakes with all my friends, Iowa city, all the memories I will miss. It's the Friday night Donnelley's beer with my dad, the Saturday morning hangover veg sessions, the walks to class, the people that I will miss. I will miss so much here, so many people and so many things, but I can't wait to come back and share with all my old friends stories of my new friends, and new places. I can't wait to have these colorful and vibrant stories that no one else will have, but I will because I ventured away from home. It takes a brave soul to leave home, and venture into the unknown. I have no idea where I will travel, who I will meet or what I will see- but I know it will be an incredible journey.

I can't wait to share my journey with everyone, I promise it will be full of eventful and questionable decisions. As nervous as I am, I know it will be something that will become a part of me, and open new doors and pathways I've never considered.

So, Cork, Ireland, here I come.


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