The time has come

I am sitting in my nearly empty room staring at my packed luggage, still slightly in denial that I will be flying back to the US tomorrow. My life over the past few days has only been slightly different from my usual life in Madrid - watching soccer games, going out at night, packing for my next trip - so it has been difficult to imagine that this time, I won't just be leaving Madrid for the weekend. My goodbyes to friends aren't a "see you on Monday," they are a "see you in September."

The hardest thing may be realizing that after tomorrow, I will (probably) never experience these sights and sounds again. The simple sights, like children playing in the plaza near my house or the bustle of people in the metro, make up the essence of Madrid, the true Madrid that I have lived in and not just visited. I could look back at pictures of monuments and views, but that isn't the Madrid that quietly grew on me.

After looking back at my first few posts and reflecting on my personal experiences before arriving in Madrid, I hardly know where to begin describing the immense changes I have undergone. It goes without saying that I no longer feel like a tourist in Madrid - in fact, it has become such a part of my sense of self that I am already planning a way to come back in the future.

More than anything, I am grateful to have been blessed with an incredibly supportive and enriching environment, one that has allowed for psychological, social, and emotional exploration not tied to the norms that have been ingrained in our minds as American youth. I have grown to love my host mother like true family and I credit a substantial portion of my personal growth to her thoughtfulness and understanding. I have met incredible people that I am so grateful I can now call my friends. I have thoroughly taken advantage of non-traditional learning and happy to say that I finally feel competent in my abilities to discuss intellectual topics in Spanish.

I constantly refer to our stay here as not "real life" simply because our life here - and the ease with which we can live it fully - is completely surreal. Stanford strives to create the optimal environment for us and I'm sure they want every student to experience all those things I just listed above, I am just grateful to have been one of those granted the opportunity. It has been life-changing, in every sense of the word.

So here we are nearly 6 months later, thinking fondly of my experiences and wondering what it will be like to return to the life I knew before going abroad. I guess tomorrow we will see...