Berkley Center

As November makes its way slowly into December, and my once elusive “semester abroad” draws into a concrete and looming conclusion, I find myself thinking more and more about what it will be like to head back to the United States, and to Georgetown specifically.

After a long weekend away from cozy Strasbourg, with its diminishing daylight hours, increasing holiday decorations, and permanent smell of blazing fireplaces, I realized that I was homesick. And I realized that homesick, now, to me, means homesick for Strasbourg; not Washington, DC, and not Boston. In fact, when thinking about how nice it is to be living among people that I can understand and converse with, I find myself internalizing my feelings towards French and not English.

On top of all of this, it hit me that even during my first weeks in Strasbourg (in a new town, with a new family, at a new school), I never experienced the culture shock I had heard so much about, or felt pangs of longing for the home I was leaving behind. I never felt homesick for the places I always, and unquestioningly, called “home.”

Now, as my days here become numbered, I’m starting to realize what it is that I love so much about being abroad: the diversity that undergirds the experience. What I encounter on a day-to-day basis is so vastly different than that which my friends see in Amman, and Buenos Aires, and Rio de Janeiro, and Paris, and Dublin, and Copenhagen and wherever else in the world they happen to be.

What’s more: my experiences are so different, even, than those of the fantastic people who study alongside me in Strasbourg itself. I always have something new and exciting to look forward to. I always have someone to talk to who has something new and exciting to tell me. And I always have a new and exciting point of view to discover, either on my own, or through my interactions with others. It’s hard to remember a time when I had the freedom to make such profound contact with my environment, and to enjoy each moment for the unadulterated richness and depth it has to offer.

I can tell you what the ticking at a crosswalk in Prague sounds like, or what it smells like in Amsterdam after it rains. I can recount the sounds of pure bliss that emanate from Hofbrauhaus, or the feeling of the rough and splintering wood of the Belfast peace walls. At the end of the day, I can say with certainty that all these singular snippets of my time abroad have fundamentally changed the way I look at, and interact with, the world—something that will stay with me no matter where I am.

The question that has lingered at the back of my mind, while reflecting on my travels, is how do I reconcile this newfound and bottomless wanderlust with the countless hours in a Lau 4 cubicle I will undoubtedly be spending come spring? And how do I re-assimilate in the culture of impossibly high expectations, academic rigor, and all-nighters, when all I’ve had to worry about since August has been how to make the utmost of my time in Europe?

Perhaps it is a little preemptive to be thinking about the spring semester when I still have over a month left to go in Strasbourg. But despite the fact that I have a quantifiable number of days remaining here, I realize that I will never be able to denote a concrete ending point for this experience. In fact, when thinking about going back to Georgetown, I realize that my physical location has absolutely no bearing on the lessons I’ve learned, the experiences I’ve accumulated, and the mindset I’ve grown into. The challenge will only lay in adapting all of this to life on the Hilltop.

In preparing for the move abroad, I spent months thinking about and imagining the experience that lay before me. I wondered what it would be like to feel so far away from home, for such a long period of time. Now, I find myself in that exact same position: wondering how I will re-find my place among my Georgetown peers. Yet if these past months have set any kind of precedence (and I am most certain that they have), I know that I’ll be able to enjoy every minute on campus. I am looking forward to drinking in the vast diversity of the student body, and making the most of everything that Georgetown has to offer. And if at first, I experience the culture shock I have heard so much about, or feel pangs of loneliness for the adopted Strasbourg home I am leaving behind, then so be it. I am ready for the adventure that awaits me.